It can be tricky to roll and shape a pizza dough. Running it out with a rolling pin will yield an appropriate flat pizza. It will simply extend things like a rubber band if you overstretch the dough. Properly spacing it out is one of the most challenging aspects of producing homemade pizza dough. Thankfully, it’s not as rough as it seems, and you’ll be a pizza pro in no time with a few helpful tips. This article will tell you how to roll pizza dough. Plus, I will give you some tips on how to freeze and thaw your pizza dough.
How to Roll Pizza Dough
For store-bought pizza dough, this method for stretching dough often works. Before stretching, make sure that the dough is at room temperature.
You will need a ball of pizza dough and a countertop dusted with flour to get started. The better you make the dough with the ingredients you use, the better the dough how to roll pizza dough properly.
Heat your cold dough for at least 30 minutes at room temperature before you begin stretching. In cold temperatures like the refrigerator, Gluten, the protein that makes pizza dough chewy, is tighter, which is why cold pizza dough can stretch out and spring back much like a rubber band. This process will relax the dough and make shaping easier.
You can use a little olive oil, about 2 to 3 tablespoons, to scrub your work surface and hands. Olive oil prevents the dough from holding to your sheet pan or cutting board and promotes a golden and crispy crust as well. You’ve got pizza dough in front of you now, soaked in olive oil. You first have to straighten the dough into a disk before stretching it.
- Start by gently flattening the dough ball to force out the dough, attempting to retain a rounded form. Then put your right hand about half an inch away from the dough’s edge. Push down into the dough in one smooth movement, spread your fingers apart slightly, and move the dough by rolling your hand.
- Take up the dough so that on the counter, half of it still lies. You should keep the dough on the one hand and your index fingers on the other with your thumbs beneath the crust.
- If the dough shrinks a little bit slow, that’s perfectly natural. But if it snaps back quickly, place the dough under a clean kitchen towel for 15 to 20 minutes. Repeat step 3, repeating the process until the dough maintains its shape.
- With your fingertips, begin pushing into the dough, softly working it outward and dragging the dough with it. To make sure that you extend it uniformly into a circle, rotate the disk. For a crust, leave the outer edges a little thicker. Keep doing this until a tiny disc has flattened and grown into the dough. Don’t press too hard, as you risk the dough being ripped apart.
- Set it down slowly on the counter if the dough tears at the top. To bind the dough together, spread the thick portion over the hole and press down firmly. Be sure to place extra flour under the fixed spot, as it will easily hold to the surface.
The best way to learn how to roll pizza dough is not to stretch the dough with your knuckles and throw it up in the air. Instead, keep the dough close to you and get an even crust using hand pulling and gravity.
Homemade Pizza Dough Ingredients
As I’ve mentioned earlier, the ingredients you use will make a better dough; thus, it’s easier on how to roll pizza dough.
The same basic ingredients start with any pizza dough: flour, yeast, water, salt, and olive oil. Here’s the rundown of what I use.
- Yeast – to get the job done, you need about one regular yeast packet with 2 and 1/4 teaspoons.
- Water – the optimal volume consists of 1 and 1/3 cups. To cut down on rising time, around 100-110 degrees Fahrenheit, use warm water. The yeast kills everything above 130 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Flour – in this recipe, use unbleached all-purpose white flour. The protein is stripped away by bleaching the grain, impacting how much water the grain collects.
- Oil – a few tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil gives the dough a wonderful taste.
- Salt
- Sugar – a tablespoon of sugar increases the yeast’s levels and tenderizes the dough, especially when coupled with a small amount of olive oil.
- Cornmeal
How to Freeze Homemade Pizza Dough
There are two 12-inch pizzas this recipe yields. You can freeze one of the dough balls later to make pizza after the pizza dough rises, and you split the dough in half. Or you can easily separately freeze both balls of dough. With nonstick spray or olive oil, gently cover all sides of the dough ball(s). Place the dough ball in a zipped-top bag and seal it tightly, pressing all the air out. Freeze for a period of up to 3 months.
How to Thaw Frozen Pizza Dough
For approximately 8 hours or overnight, put the frozen pizza dough in the cooler. When the pizza is finished, take the dough from the refrigerator and rest on the floor for 30 minutes. In the recipe below, proceed with step 5. Know more about pizza dough.
Conclusion
It’s surprisingly easy to make pizza dough. Plus, it’s enjoyable to roll it out. All you need are flour, yeast, a little bit of olive oil, and a little bit of salt with enough warm water to make a fine, durable dough. Hopefully, this article has taught you how to roll pizza dough.