Making pizza dough is not the quickest process, but it's easy, and if you are an aficionado of Italian food you now that it's worth the effort to find your best pizza dough recipe, it will reward you with perfect pizzas every time..
Every one who has ever made his or her own pasta will know that it bears no resemblance to the bland dried product that you can buy in the supermarket. There is nothing wrong with using a prefab pizza dough base, but if you truly love pizza you owe it yourself to taste the best pizza dough. You are likely never to go back to the pre-made pizza bases.
Personal preference decides what pizza dough is perfect for you, and at the end of the day homemade pizza dough is made from flour, yeast, salt and water. However, particular attention must be paid to the process for the dough to be perfect.
Strong white flour is best (in some countries this flour is marked as bread flour). Although plain flour can be used as well, it does not have the same high gluten content and therefore the finished pizza dough will not be as stretchy. Watching a pizza chef doing acrobatics with the dough is proof enough how elastic the dough should be, they throw it in the air and catch it with their fingers without it leaving a dent in the dough. This shows that the gluten has done its work and the pizza dough is robust and flexible.
Whilst it is technically possible to get the pizza dough to rise faster by placing the dough in a warm place, experts tend to agree that the finished pizza dough is best left to rise naturally, whatever the pizza dough recipe. After kneading the dough should be left to double in size naturally. This should be a process that is completed by the eye and not the clock. It can take anything between 1 hour and 2 hours depending on the temperature and the amount of draught.
Pay attention to the kneading process: it eliminates excess gas produced by the yeast and quite literally knocks the air out of the pizza dough. Many people find the action of kneading the dough very therapeutic and chefs are often asked how you can tell when the dough is kneaded sufficiently. The answer is: you can feel it in your hands (practice makes perfect).
Pizza dough keeps in the refrigerator for several days and frozen pizza dough can be kept for several months. I always have frozen pizza dough in the freezer for emergencies, and I find that if it is frozen in pieces the size of golf balls then it is defrosted in ten minutes.
When you come to baking your pizza dough, the chances are that you are using a conventional oven rather than one fired from the volcanic rocks of Vesuvius. The baking time is always intense and short and the temperature should be 220°C or 425°F. The pizza dough should always be placed on the upper shelves, and whilst you can cook more than one pizza base at once, they should never be placed at less than the middle. This is because heat rises and you cannot get the best heat at the bottom of an oven.
If you want a pizza with a thin, golden crust, thin-crust pizza dough is the way to go. All-purpose flour is the foundation of our recipe, and there is no kneading involved in the mixing process. It will take a little while until your home-cooked pizza rivals the best pizzerias.
Here's a quick and easy pizza dough recipe. You can make pizza dough with the aid of a food processor or a bread machine, but this recipe is done by hand.
Whole Wheat Pizza Dough is prepared with high-quality ingredients, and the resulting pizzas are mouthwatering. This pizza dough may also create calzones, Stromboli’s, and breadsticks. All of these dishes are similar to pizza. Whole wheat dough has an higher nutritional value and is good source of fibers.
The gold standard for pizza dough is New York, Style Dough. It is not too tacky and has a pleasant degree of elasticity, making it a joy to work with. This dough is perfect for hand-stretching and sliding onto the stone or shaping into a pizza in your preferred style, whether deep dish or Chicago style.
Our favorite pizza dough is Sicilian Pizza Dough. Even though it's a little more challenging to deal with, it's well worth it. There is enough pizza dough for four to six people or 5 pounds. Make the necessary adjustments and bake more pizzas if more are required.
Zucchini may be used to make a unique pizza crust. Zucchini is among the top vegetables for fiber, vitamins, and minerals. Because it contains no gluten and has fewer carbs than traditional pizza dough, zucchini is a fantastic gluten-free alternative or for a Keto diet
The cornmeal crust gives our favorite pies an additional layer of crunch and flavor when baked into the pizza before serving. Before adding the toppings, you must spray the dough with a bit of olive oil and then sprinkle it with cornmeal.
If your oven has a glass door this is an easy process. If the pizza has a rim then the dough develops blisters and it is golden brown, without a rim the golden brown color of the edge indicates that the pizza is ready to be eaten.
If the oven has not got a glass door it's more difficult to check if your pizza is ready. Do remember that every time you open the oven door, heat is lost and the pizza becomes less than perfect each time the door is opened.
The process, depending on the oven, takes between ten to fifteen minutes and it will take longer if you have more than one pizza in. A thicker crust will also take longer than a thinner crust.
What shape and size your pizza should be depends on how many people you want to feed and how traditional you want to make the pizza. Pizzas are not always round. the Sorrento region in Italy is famous for its rectangular pizza.
Though in theory pizzas can be any shape, a shape such as a crescent is not practical to pick up, as the filling will hold in the center and fall of the edge. Really the only important thing you have to decide is how thick or thin you want to make your finished pizzas.
For the traditionalists regarding Italian pizza dough recipes, there are two schools of thought dominated by the Romans and the Neapolitans.
The Classic Neapolitan pizza dough Shape
The Neapolitans favor a thicker pizza with a rim. The dough should be a little over 3mm or 1/8 of an inch thick. The edges are a little thicker so that they will puff up in the cooking process. This means that this will form a natural barrier and keep the filling in the center.
The Classic Roman pizza dough Shape
The Roman style pizza does not have a rim because their pizza fillings are more viscous and they tend to stay in place and not have a tendency to slide off the pizza. The pizza is never more than 3mm or 1/8 of an inch thick.
Thin Pizza Crust RecipeSide note: in Rome's pizzerias, a "Pizza Napoletana" or Neapolitan pizza is topped with tomato, mozzarella, anchovies and oil, whilst in Naples to get the same topping you need to ask for a pizza Romano.
Quick and Easy Pizza Dough Recipe
This recipe is for a pizza dough in its most basic form. It's quick and easy!
Easy Pizza Dough RecipeWhole Wheat Pizza Dough
Besides being super tasty, whole wheat flour has got a lot of health benefits compared to white flour. The carbohydrates from whole wheat flour are digested slower and this reduces the incidence of obesity and related diseases.
Whole Wheat Pizza DoughNew York style Pizza Dough
Typically New Yorkers have seized the pizza and made it their own. A bulbous outer crust and a very thin and crisp middle characterize a New York style pizza. Often the New York Pizza is sold as slices rather than a complete pizza, and it is often made in a rectangular shape.
New York Style Pizza Dough RecipeZucchini Pizza Dough Recipe
Zucchini dough differs from the traditional Italian pizza in that way that it has eggs in it and the crust is made, then baked and then the toppings are added. It contains less calories and has a different flavor than the traditional pizza base.
Zucchini Pizza Dough RecipeSicilian Pizza Dough
Sicilian pizza is different from traditional pizzas in that way that the toppings are incorporated into the dough.
Sicilina Pizza Dough Recipe