Make homemade pizza, stone not required
Don’t be daunted: Pizza from a home kitchen isnt difficult, but a few strategies and tools go a long way toward ensuring success
Homemade pizza is fun to make and delicious to eat. But it can also be challenging at times, as I know from personal experience and the many reader inquiries we receive on the topic, both by email and in the live weekly Q&A I host with my colleague Aaron Hutcherson.
So to help all the wannabe pieslingers, I’m collecting and answering some of the most common questions.
Q: Why does my pizza dough snap back when I stretch it?
A: Much like many of us these days, your dough probably just needs to relax. Especially for doughs that have just come out of the refrigerator, a brief rest can help make the dough easier to stretch. Turn it out onto a lightly floured counter and start to stretch it by dimpling it with your fingers until it’s just 4 or 5 inches wide. Then walk away. Use this time to prep toppings, check your email, whatever. After 10 to 15 minutes, you’ll find the dough is much easier to work with.
Another possibility is that you have a lot of gluten in the dough, which forms when water gets together with proteins in the flour and is developed further through kneading and rising. Gluten is what contributes to a dough’s stretchy, springy and chewy nature, and if you use a higher-protein flour, you will end up with more of it. So if you’re starting with bread flour or high-protein specialty pizza flour and want a slightly more relaxed dough, try replacing some or all of it with all-purpose flour. If you’re using a high-protein all-purpose flour, such as King Arthur Baking, you can mix in something lower-protein, such as Gold Medal or Pillsbury. Experiment with different ratios and see what works for you.
Q: How do I get a perfectly round pizza?
A:
First, perfection is overrated. I’ve made my share of wonkylooking pizzas and none of them have tasted worse for it. But there are strategies for getting a little closer to a nice-looking round.
For most us, the answer is not as glamorous as tossing dough in the air like an experienced pizzaiolo. (Good luck to you if you try it!) Instead, I find the best method is slow and incremental. Working the dough too much in one direction will lead to a lopsided pizza. It requires a little patience, but