How to make pizza

[MisterLove]

I tried to make pizza this week but results were not great and I'm a bit depressed.

It wasn't bad but it wasn't great either.

My first attempt was actually the best one: the sauce was very good but the dough felt a little bit 'raw'. I baked it in the oven for 15 minutes (200º C)

The second attempt was worse, sauce and dough were clearly overcooked (20 minutes, 220º C) and the dough was too thick and dry.

The dough is the tricky part, of course. I hate kneading and it is sticky. I used my THERMOMIX for kneading but it can't do everything on its own.




A couple of things I'm going to try next time:

a) Sprinkle olive oil on the Thermomix bowl and steel blades so that the dough doesn't stick

b) Use a silicone mat to spread the dough

c) Use a silicone rolling pin (I've already bought it and it's great, so much better than the wood version)

Any other accessories or tips that you find useful? A pizza stone maybe?

Thanks in advance, guys

[Woollyhats]

I've never had a problem (I like the dough slightly doughy, but don't mind it cooked 'properly', so obviously there's a bigger margin for error for me)... I'm assuming this is solely an issue of having undercooked/overcooked pizza, and that you did everything else right. Generally I wait until the cheese is fully melted and the crust looks firm, if I'm being extra insecure I might fork the dough with a fork. This makes sure it's cooked on top and underneath. I suppose you could also just lift it up and look underneath too. I don't actually time it when I make a pizza because when I first made a pizza I forgot the time I had put it in, and my mom told me if I just watched it, it would be fine. It was, so I do that now. Also, if I undercook, throw it back in for a few seconds/minutes longer... I don't turn my oven off right away because of that.

[southbiochem]

Olive oil is definitely a good idea...

perhaps you can increase a bit the time but not the temperature, so you can better your first attempt

20 min or a bit more..

[MisterTinkles]

You can actually use ANY bread dough recipe for pizza, as long as you dont over bake it.

Bread dough is a temperamental thing, you have to know how to handle it, work it, and get it to turn out the way you want. It takes practice.

[Lilitu]

It's best to use a ciabatta dough for puzza bases, as they cook well at higher tekperatures which you need to get it both crispy and not dry.

i always use this no knead pizza dough recipe: http://foodwishes.blogspot.co.nz/2010/09...x.html?m=1

Basically you dissolve the yeast then just add everything together (I dont put the whole wheat flour in as the recipe says, I find that whole wheat flour makes pizza taste gummy and rubbery and lrevents those bubbles forming) knead it half-arsed with a spoon and just leave it for a day.

Then all you need to do is scrape it out and work it into balls and roll it out or stretch it out.

I think tjis works better than most kneaded rcipes.

also, use LOTS of oil. everywhere.

[MarySandy]

Order it lol

[Bowyn Aerrow]

Silicon... hmm. Never tried that.

Kneading a perfect dough is an art form, not a science - well not in the home kitchen. yeah sure the Wonder people have whole factories that turn out millions of duplicate copies of what they call 'bread' but I strongly suggest you read the ingredients on breads. I'm no chemist, but surely their secrete is 90% chemistry.

I don't care how climate controlled your apartment is, It is not as climatically controlled as a bakery, there is going to be a pretty large range of humidity and even temperatures in your apartment.

I use a Kitchenaide Hook to knead bread dough. I let the hook knead it for 12 minutes then I usually take over for a minute or two sometimes more depending on how the dough feels. How does it feel? https://www.google.com/#q=how+should+bread+dough+feel Pick a site or a few and see if any of those descriptions tell ya. Honestly I can't think of a way to describe it, I just know with a pinch.

A nice solidly kneaded dough is elastic, rolling it out with a rolling pin most likely ain't going to work out well as the dough will have a tendency to spring back to a lump. Understand, each time you press down and try rolling it you are kneading the dough a wee bit more.

As such, if you are making bread you will knead it a touch longer than if you are making cinnamon rolls or a pizza crust as you will be kneading it a little more as you roll that puppy flat.

OR you can make bread dough and then stretch it - all of that pizza pie throwing and spinning in the air isn't just done to impress the people or because the pizza maker is bored, its because its easier to spin it out into an even thinness than roll it out. Yeah I know, the pizza place down the street has a roller - they also use chemically enhanced dough.

Cooking times vary, depending on the BTU of your oven - if you are going by the knob chances are pretty high you are off a few degrees - this is typical of a consumer stove/oven. The older the appliance the more likely it is to be off a few more degrees. You need an oven thermometer and to measure the real heat and learn to compensate.

Humidity in the house plays a huge role in cooking times of breads, cakes, pie crusts, cookies, etc. If the house is near saturation point on a rainy day with humidity, it takes longer to crisp anything, as it requires a bit more heat/time to remove moisture from whatever you are baking.

Pizza from Pizza the hut is baked in a specialized pizza oven. your home oven is not a pizza oven, its a temperamental old gal that is designed to bake/roast/broil a whole range of temperatures.

One method of overcoming that is getting a pizza stone. https://www.google.com/#q=pizza+stone Understand you heat that stone BEFORE you put a pizza on it, this isn't like a cold cookie sheet, the stone is hot and instantly starts cooking the crust from the bottom up.

[MisterTinkles]

One of the "tricks" to homemade pizza dough, is to have it "sticky" before you roll it out using more flour.


And like Lulu stated, use oil for "basting" your outside crust, to keep it from over baking or drying out. Unless you like that.

You can also make your own flavored oils, such as garlic oil, onion oil, or even cheese oil and brush it onto your crust (the part that is "the ring").

I love garlic oil on my pizza crust....mmmmmmm.

[Lilitu]

One of the "tricks" to homemade pizza dough, is to have it "sticky" before you roll it out using more flour.


And like Lulu stated, use oil for "basting" your outside crust, to keep it from over baking or drying out. Unless you like that.

You can also make your own flavored oils, such as garlic oil, onion oil, or even cheese oil and brush it onto your crust (the part that is "the ring").

I love garlic oil on my pizza crust....mmmmmmm.

Me so hungry

[SilverBullet]

I had a bad pizza experiment myself, bought a "pizza stone" in a pottery store thinking WOOT im gonna make the most awesome (and cheap) pizza EVER! the crust tasted like a biscuit *I followed the directions on the pizza yeast package :*(.

End of the day I put the pizza stone in storage reasoning about my favorite pizza is pepperoni and its 5$ for a large not too far from my house .