How to handle Pizza Dough?

Fairalbion

Made pizza on the Egg yesterday and it came out beautifully. However we had an awful time manipulating the extremely elastic dough beforehand; it was almost impossible to roll/stretch into an appropriately thin crust, it kept snapping back. Does anyone have any hints on how to handle and shape raw pizza dough? The only tool we have is an old wooden rolling pin.

Smokey Bob

Fairalbion, Let the dough rest for at least 30 min after it has risen an dyou have punched it down. This will let the gluten relax and make the dough easier to handle. If the dough has been refrigerated, let it rest on the kitchen counter to come up to room temp.[p]SB

Puj

Fairalbion,[p]... and I'll just add more thing to Smokey Bob's thoughts:[p]When/if you find that after you let the dough rest 10 to 30 minutes and it still snaps back, let it rest in 5 to 10 minutes increments and proceed. You are experiencing a dough with gluten that is full of energy. There is nothing wrong with the dough, so say "that's a good thing".[p]Puj

Shelby

Fairalbion,
I "cheat" in making my dough. I add the ingredients to the bread machine, set it to "dough" and let it do it's thing. In 90 minutes, the dough is ready to go. I take it out and roll it since I'm no good at hand tossing. Dough always comes out great and is ready to use right out of the machine.