About Ready To Give Up On Pizza Dough

i go to my favorite pizza place, buy raw doughs from them. . .easy peasy. . .most pizza joints are happy to sell you balls of pizza dough....

i form the pie half way, give another rest and then finish it up if it wants to spring back, that extra little rest seems to help. you also have to sing with an italian accent when tossing and spinning the dough :laugh:

FossilPeddler is correct, you need to let the dough rest after you shape it in any way. As you stretch it, the gluten toughens up and wants to spring back to it's original shape. The more gluten the dough has the harder it will be to work with, and the longer you will need it to rest. For most pizza dough you would not want to add extra gluten, the amount in a bread flour is plenty. I would perfect my technique with AP flour and once you get the hang of all of the other variables start experimenting with bread and high gluten flours. It also helps if you have some fat in the dough(olive oil, shortening, lard). Let your dough start to come to room temp, start to shape it, and if it starts to spring back let it sit for 10 minutes before you finish it. It is not difficult at all, it is just a matter of getting used to working with the dough. Don't give up! Once you figure it out you'll be making all kinds of bread products.

I agree with much of what's been said - I'd say the keys to a manageable dough and a nice pizza crust are lower gluten, higher hydration, a half hour autolyse before kneading, gentle handling - and letting the dough relax before making the pie.

I use all purpose flour or a 50/50 mix of ap and bread flour.

The ap flour makes a nice dough that is easy to stretch and form because of the lower gluten content.

I form the crust gently by dipping my hands in a bowl of flour then lifting the dough on the backs of my knuckles and gently stretching it. When it's too thin to stretch further in the air without tearing I lay it out on a semolina dusted wooden peel and finish the shaping.

Bread flour has more gluten and makes a dough that is easier to manhandle (tossing it and spinning it in the air..etc.) if that's what you like - but the dough tends to be more elastic and springy so it shrinks a bit when you're trying to put toppings on.

I'd think using a rolling pin would be too aggressive a treatment and would make a tougher dough than I want.

Besides having a nice wet dough at around 65% hydration - I think the next most important thing is to let the dough rest a half hour immediately after you mix it all together and form a ball. This rest, known as the autolyse, lets water soak into the flour.

I've found that with a proper autolyse I don't really have to knead the dough that much at all - maybe 3 minutes by hand - before it passes the windowpane test.

I have been having good luck using a Greek accent.

G & C, I'm right there with ya. I actually have 2 dough balls in the fridge right now. I'll be pulling them out before long to try another time for good crust. I'm using the recipe that Fidel posted minus the Sir Lancelot. I could only find the bread flour.