Bread/Pizza Dough Techniques [closed]

Can someone explain to me, or give me some links on how dough is affected by the following 'variables': oil vs no oil, baking powder vs yeast, oven temperature (high vs low), water vs milk, egg vs no egg, self rising flower or other flour types (self rising flour, high gluten etc), milk vs water, sugar vs honey, fresh yeast vs dry yeast etc.

I tried doing pizza as the one I get from a restaurant or takeaway, but never succeeded. How important is the cooking temperature?

Thank you.

Best Answer

Classic Pizza dough is well balanced mix of flour, water, salt and a leavening agent.

All the other ingredients that can be added to the mix have a specific purpose and always add something.

For example the presence of oil: adding a fat to the mix will modify the structure, but different oil will have a different impact, olive oil will make the final baked good softer (and greasier), but a corn oil will make it crispier.

Baking powder is a chemical leavening agent and it's rarely used in pizza dough as it's not fit for the maturation and baking process of pizza.

Oven temperature is one of the most important factor and, with few exceprions, it should be

as hot as you can!

I would not recommend milk in pizza dough, it would be almost surely softer than desired...

No egg is ever added to pizza dough

Pick a finely ground organic flour with high gluten content if are aiming to the best results (as in charred crust with big, airy bubbles)

Some sugar/honey will help the yeast to do a better job, especially if you plan overnight-refrigerated fermenting of the mix

Dry yeast is cheaper, more accessible and easy to keep!

Pizza making at home DOES NOT happen from one day to the other, there is much learning about the culinary process (from preparing the dough to properly choose the type and amount of toppings and sourcing the best ingredients) but you also need to get some skills such as knowing your oven and your kitchen tools, experimenting with different baking sheets, pizza stones, pizza peels... I can assure it will take a while, but it is absolutely worth.

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Bread/Pizza Dough Techniques [closed] - Coca Cola Cans Beside Pizza

How do you close pizza dough?

Bring your dough to room temperature. Before you begin stretching, warm up your cold dough for at least 30 minutes at room temperature. Gluten, the protein that makes pizza dough chewy, is tighter in cold conditions like the fridge, which is why cold pizza dough will stretch out and snap back just like a rubber band.

Why does my dough keep retracting?

How to Stop Pizza Dough from Shrinking

Scale and ball the dough immediately after mixing.

Place the dough balls in plastic dough boxes and wipe the top of the dough balls with salad oil.

Cross-stack the dough boxes in the cooler for at least two hours before down-stacking the boxes.

HOW TO MAKE BREAD FROM PIZZA DOUGH LEFTOVER

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