Ever hear the phrase “easy as pie”. They may have been talking about pizza dough making because it actually is very simple.
The fact is most pizza doughs only have about five very simple ingredients. Flour, water, oil, salt and yeast are the usual suspects.
Not only does pizza dough making not require many ingredients, it also doesn’t take a lot of time. The longest time period is waiting for the proofing process (the rising of the dough). But you can be doing other things.
There are numerous recipes available on the Internet for pizza dough making. Just select a simple one to start and the process should go like this:
First assemble all your ingredients in the quantities called for. Having all your ingredients ready to go before you begin saves a lot of time and makes things go much more smoothly.
Add and mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl. Add the water, making sure it’s not too far above or below a temperature of 105 degrees. That’s the optimum temperature for the yeast to do it’s thing.
Combine or “cut” the dry ingredients together until a loose pizza dough ball forms, then add the oil. Continue to mix until the oil is absorbed and all ingredients have been incorporated into the dough ball.
Place the dough on a flour-dusted surface. Add a tiny amount of flour to the dough ball as it will be quick sticky. Put some on your hands as well to prevent sticking. Knead the dough by pressing down and away from you. Fold it over on itself, turn 90 degrees and knead again. Keep this up for about 5 minutes.
Knead the pizza dough making dough ball for approximately five minutes or until it takes on a smooth appearance and is very elastic. Form the dough into a nice round ball when done.
Coat a bowl with oil and place the dough ball into it. Move the ball around to coat it lightly all over with oil. Put a piece of plastic wrap over the bowl, then move it to a warm, but not hot, location in the kitchen. Wait about two hours and check to see if it has doubled in size.
After the dough has risen, remove it to a flour-dusted surface and begin rolling it out to shape with a rolling pin. Unless you want a thick crust, most people roll in out to a 1/8″ thickness.
Once finished, gently pick it up and place it into your baking pan. Shape and trim the dough as necessary.
Guess what? You just succeeded one your first attempt at pizza dough making!
Get Complementaryvideo tutorials and directions on pizza dough making at http://www.stuffed-pizza-crust.com. We offer over 200 recipes for pizza dough, pizza sauce and some scrumptious topping suggestions.