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Pizza Dough question

Marcusp
Marcusp Posts: 16
edited August 2012 in EggHead Forum
I have tried several recipes for pizza dough and thought they came out okay. My wife informed me a couple weeks ago that Publix carries pizza dough. Yesterday I was working and decided I wanted to make a pizza while watching nationwide race. I asked her to pick up a pizza dough from Publix as it would be much faster. Low and behold the dough was much different and better than what I had made in the past. Publix dough had lots of air in it which never has. Can someone explain would would be different as to why such a difference. My pizza dough has always been thin and flat I thought it was due to me using rolling pin but last night proved that theory incorrect.. I suspect something different in yeast process. This has been my process: 1. In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast in1/4 cup of the warm water. Add the sugar and 1/4 cup of the flour and stir with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula to combine. 2. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for 20 minutes. 3. Add the remaining 1 cup warm water and 3 cups flour, the cornmeal, salt, and 1/2 cup olive oil. 4. Using a wooden spoon, mix the dough, incorporating as much of the flour as possible.

Comments

  • Mighty_Quinn
    Mighty_Quinn Posts: 1,878
    You have to take it past just mixing the dough to incorporate as much flour as possible. Kneading the dough for several minutes will develop the gluten that is necessary to give the dough structure to allow it to handle the "air". Could be bad yeast too...after you mix yeast with water, sugar and the 1st bit of flour, does that mixture look bubbly at all?
  • njl
    njl Posts: 1,123

    My pizza dough routine (been doing a pizza a week for more than a year) is:

    1 cup water, 40s in the microwave (gets the water to about 110F)
    1 envelope Fleischmann's active dry yeast
    Sugar (the recipe calls for 1 tsp...but lately I've been experimenting with honey instead...I've been squirting roughly 1-2 tsp in, instead of the sugar, and it doesn't seem to make much difference.  i.e. it works fine, and IMO the honey is better for me than cane sugar).

    These 3 things go into a large mixing bowl and are left sitting just long enough to verify the yeast wasn't bad while I measure out the flour.

    2.5 cups flour (I like to use 2 cups King Arthur AP + 1/2 cup King Arthur white whole wheat)
    1 tsp kosher salt
    3 TBSP olive oil

    Mix the salt and oil into the bowl first, then the flour.  I mix by hand with a sturdy fork until uniform, possibly adding small amounts of flour (and mixing it in until uniform) if I think the dough is too wet (sticky).  Then spray the inside of the bowl with olive oil, rolling the dough ball around to get it out of the way to spray the entire inside of the bowl.  Then cover all but maybe a quarter inch of a side with plastic wrap, drape a paper towel over the bowl and refrigerate overnight.  Punch down the next morning and roll back into a nice ball (all done inside the bowl), then put back in the fridge.  When its time to cook, remove from fridge, punch down again, and give it 30m to an hour to warm up.  Then add a bit more flour if necessary, flour hands and counter, do a bit of hand stretching of the dough, then use a rolling pin for the rest.  When I think I have it rolled out to the size/shape I want, I lift it up and transfer to parchment on a flat baking sheet.  It usually gets a little messed up doing this, so then I clean off the counter, transfer the pizza/parchment to the counter, and do any repairs/additional rolling needed.  Then, poke all over (maybe ignoring the outside 1" of crust)  with a fork to reduce the chances of any really large air pockets turning the pizza into a balloon.  If you want thicker crust, at this point you can let it sit on the counter 15m or so to do a little more rising.

    I bake just the crust on parchment at 425F on a preheated stone for 2 minutes, remove from oven, add all the toppings, then cook another 14min on the parchment on the stone.  If you have a pizza peel, you can lose the parchment after the pre-bake...but I don't and I find keeping it on the parchment is very convenient.

    This amount of dough makes 1 16" round pizza.

    This is based on a recipe I found online for "no rise" pizza...you're supposed to be able to just mix all this up, let it rest 10 minutes, and make pizza.  You can do that...but I find it's much better to mix it up the night before and let it do two rises.

    I've not tried this in the egg yet...just the inside oven.
  • Duganboy
    Duganboy Posts: 1,118
    Bread machine for me. Put in the ingredients, hit dough cycle and it kneads for 30 minutes.  I then leave it in fridge for two or three days and take it out 2-3 hours before and put the dough ball in a greased glass bowl in the oven with a towel over top and the oven light on. 
  • fishlessman
    fishlessman Posts: 32,671
    that looks like the recipe ive been using for calzones, if you know the yeast is good, you can skip the warm water and use cold, no proofing. ive been using a zip lock, oiling bag, add dough, fridge overnight, punch bag and rise again, just make sure to squeeze the air out of the bag before it goes in the fridge.
    fukahwee maine

    you can lead a fish to water but you can not make him drink it
  • Brownie
    Brownie Posts: 1,023
    Thanks for sharing your recipe. I have been trying new ones and will add your to my list to try.
  • Phoenix824
    Phoenix824 Posts: 243
    Marcusp said:
    I have tried several recipes for pizza dough and thought they came out okay. My wife informed me a couple weeks ago that Publix carries pizza dough. Yesterday I was working and decided I wanted to make a pizza while watching nationwide race. I asked her to pick up a pizza dough from Publix as it would be much faster. Low and behold the dough was much different and better than what I had made in the past. Publix dough had lots of air in it which never has. Can someone explain would would be different as to why such a difference. My pizza dough has always been thin and flat I thought it was due to me using rolling pin but last night proved that theory incorrect.. I suspect something different in yeast process. This has been my process: 1. In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast in1/4 cup of the warm water. Add the sugar and 1/4 cup of the flour and stir with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula to combine. 2. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for 20 minutes. 3. Add the remaining 1 cup warm water and 3 cups flour, the cornmeal, salt, and 1/2 cup olive oil. 4. Using a wooden spoon, mix the dough, incorporating as much of the flour as possible.
    The only thing I do that you do not mention is I let it rise for a couple of hours before I roll it out.     Tonight for the first time I did not use a roller but I have used them in the past and still gotten a great dough.
    Steve Van Wert, Ohio XL BGE
  • Skiddymarker
    Skiddymarker Posts: 8,522
    There are hundreds of ways to make pizza dough, you find what works for you. My comments on your post:
    1. In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast in1/4 cup of the warm water. Add the sugar and 1/4 cup of the flour and stir with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula to combine. Great first step, get some of the flour, water and all of the yeast going. 
    2. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for 20 minutes. Ah, not for me, I'd do something like this after step 5 I added below, and for maybe 45 minutes to an hour. 
    3. Add the remaining 1 cup warm water and 3 cups flour, the cornmeal, salt, and 1/2 cup olive oil. Never used cornmeal in the dough, maybe under the crust on the stone, but not in it. I also do not use olive oil as my son's Italian mother in law says it is a waste of good olive oil, but it works, if you feel rich use it.
    4. Using a wooden spoon, mix the dough, incorporating as much of the flour as possible. Yep, it should be sticky. 
    5. Turn it out to a floured surface, knead for maybe 5 to 10 minutes, it is hard to knead too much so knead as long as you can.make a ball and into an oiled bowl.
    Now your step 2, let it rise in an oiled bowl, covered for 45 minutes to an hour - double in size. 
    6. Punch it down and before it starts to rise again, put it in the fridge or the freezer. If in the fridge, you can use it the next day by bringing to room temp first. If in the freezer, thaw for 24 hours in the firdge first, then bring to room temp. The rise and the cold does something to the gluten which makes the dough easier to shape, it is not so elastic. You won't need your rolling pin. 
    Good luck!
    Delta B.C. - Whiskey and steak, because no good story ever started with someone having a salad!