Share Your Best Pizza Dough...

Soldato
Joined
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you are rolling on the sheet it is going into the oven on ?
if I could roll it it would generally indicate it is too dry - when it is sticky, it is only deft hands and a bit of polenta that does it ..

but I agree can be hit and miss, and I tend to add too much water forgetting it does seem to loosen up after kneed/rise.
No roll it on a silicone mat, then put it on my plywood peel. I think i need to kneed more to stop it getting holes in anytime i try to stretch it by hand.
 
Soldato
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the south
If your dough is tearing easily its sometimes because its not had time/kneading to develop a good gluten structure.

When kneading your dough you want to pull a small lump off and stretch it between your fingers and see how stretchy it is.
you looking for around 75% gluten structure.

You should be able to stretch the dough without it tearing and when looking through the dough it should be clear and not patchy or cloudy.

If the dough tears when you stretch it, it need more kneading.
 
Associate
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tried my new wetter recipe dough lovely consistency and handled nicely however the the results in my 250c electric fan oven were not anywhere as good as my previous (drier) recipe.

I'm guessing that this wetter recipe would definite benefit from hotter temps.
 
Soldato
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the south
tried my new wetter recipe dough lovely consistency and handled nicely however the the results in my 250c electric fan oven were not anywhere as good as my previous (drier) recipe.

I'm guessing that this wetter recipe would definite benefit from hotter temps.

250c should be plenty hot enough with a wet dough. What was the problem?

This was around 75% hydration and didn't come out to bad at 230c


FdktY2H.jpg
 
Associate
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250c should be plenty hot enough with a wet dough. What was the problem?

This was around 75% hydration and didn't come out to bad at 230c

Looking good.

It just didn't come out as nice as my previous effoerts....the base still remained flat despite only being created by hand (no rolling pin). Also wasn't helped by my pasata based sauce...... pasata this time round was not nice will chuck the batch and source a quality tinned tomato.
Lastly tried buffalo mozza for first time...didnt use much but found it both overly creamy and runny when cooked.....will be going back to supermarket italian mozza.
 
Soldato
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how long do you heat the stone ? I need 30-40mins ...maybe a steel is different.

I did not find buffalo moz, value for taste on a pizza, for a salad, maybe.

per earlier discussions in the thread , I make up a onion/celery/cirio-tomato sauce thickened with cornflour
 
Caporegime
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Well my cheapo Amazon pizza stone cracked in two yesterday, so I've ordered a cheapo Amazon pizza steel (£32) that's arriving today.

Combined with some pre-sliced mozzarella (should be drier?) I'm going to have another crack tonight and will compare and contrast with the results from the stone.

What I'm also going to do is place the broken stone above the pizza as it cooks, to radiate the heat down onto the top.
 
Soldato
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Well my cheapo Amazon pizza stone cracked in two yesterday
send it back unless you did something to provoke it ? at what point did it break ?

last nights with usual sourdough base + corned dog / jalepenos / moz.

just Asda normal moz, from fridge, drained from bag, cut in 3-4mm slices and used maybe 1hr later - no wetness problems

the overflow moz that tips down side onto stone, into brown crispy wafers is the best bit ? keep thinking I should explicitly put some on stone.

44721099234_7a6f54c285_o_d.jpg
 
Caporegime
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send it back unless you did something to provoke it ? at what point did it break ?

Might do. Sending it back will probably cost more than than the time and refund is worth and I'm using the stone for top heat anyway.

It broke at some point in the middle of cooking a pizza, as it was fine when it went in and cracked by the time the pizza was cooked.
 
Caporegime
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Well I officially like the pizza steel with a stone above method.

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Cooked in just under 5 minutes in my 300C oven on pizza mode.

Method was 160g water 240g very strong bread flour, dry yeast, salt, sugar, olive oil. Single prove for 90 minutes. Chucked some kabanos on too.

Kneading for a little longer made a huge difference to the workability of the dough.
 
Soldato
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the south
That looks great. I like the idea of a stone above to radiate the heat to the top of the pizza.

Longer kneading really helps to develope the gluten structure making a stretchyer dough.
 
Caporegime
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That looks great. I like the idea of a stone above to radiate the heat to the top of the pizza.

Longer kneading really helps to develope the gluten structure making a stretchyer dough.

Yes I'm coming to the conclusion that the correct kneading time (neither too long nor too short) is more important than I thought it was.

I'm not yet confident in knowing when enough kneading is enough. I thought I'd over-kneaded for yesterday's pizza, because it had started to become quite firm and I couldn't stretch a small ball of dough very much before it separated, but it turned out to be perfect.

On another subject: polenta - who uses it, for what reason, and for what type of pizza?

I've never used it but from what I gather lots of people (and restaurants) do. Is it mainly to stop sticking, because I don't have any problems with that if I use enough flour on the peel / board / my hands? Or do people use it so they don't have to use lots of flour?

Going by shop bought pizzas with lots of it, I don't find polenta very appealing and I don't believe you'll ever find a Neapolitan with any.
 
Soldato
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the south
You want to avoid using too much flour if possible as you with change hydration ratio of the dough and raw flour detracts from the taste.

I use white worth's semolina as it's really fine and I like the added flavour from it.

Not all semolina is the same, some is very course which I found wasn't as good.

When you think you're done kneading pull a small amount of dough away from the ball and try stretching it between your fingers.
It should stretch easily and if you hold it up to the light it should be clear.

If it's stiff or rips easily when you stretch it the gluten structure hasn't build up enough yet and it needs more kneading.

Also if it's cloudy when holding up to the light it needs more kneading.
 
Associate
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5 Mar 2012
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This is my go to and recently as I haven't had the time to get the bbq set up for a proper 500c cook so..

I have been making grill pizzas (boo hiss philistine etc. )

using the same dough, you roll out/pull out the dough onto your peel and lay it straight on the bbq grills, when it's puffed up, you flip the base over, put olive and your toppings on and close the lid. 2-3 mins later you have a grill pizza.

  • 5 cups all purpose or 00 flour + some for dusting
  • 1 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
  • 1 1/2 tsp sea salt
  • 2 1/4 cups COLD water
  • 1 tbs extra virgin olive oil
 
Soldato
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21,781
I use white worth's semolina as it's really fine and I like the added flavour from it.
what is the flour / semolina proportion you use ?
semolina is wheat so still has gluten, whereas polenta, particiant ref'd, is corn too, I guess, in a base, with polenta, it would it more cakey.


I just use polenta to help with dough handling at the end, preferably the fine stuff, bought some coarse because it was cheaper, but since it does not cook thoroughly it introduces a grittiness vs fine, seems to burn easily too, and set off smoke alarm. (polenta does not seem to sell with a 00/000 guage like flour)

I am not convinced by the stone above strategy, we don't have not got the temp in an oven for black body radiation/glowing;
the stone beneath works by conduction/contact, a big heat mass, but above, need to make sure the air flow from a fan oven is not obstructed
 
Associate
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I'm currently using this recipe:

235g strong flour
160ml water
1/2 tsp dried yeast
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar

I use a breadmaker on pizza dough mode. Comes out fairly wet and I use semolina flour to stop it sticking -- I've tried with flour but I find it's better with the semolina. I've tried both stretching with fingertips and rolling, and at the moment I'm preferring to roll it as I get a nice even base and although it knocks some of the air out of the dough, I quite like the compact chew I get on the crust. I currently use a stone but the steel sounds interesting.
 
Caporegime
Joined
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Today's effort for lunch, a basic Margherita with parmesan.

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Instead of using fresh mozzarella, this time I purely used this grated stuff with no fresh:

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Whilst not as authentic, it was much better in terms of avoiding tomato soup at the bottom of the pizza.
 
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