Homemade pizza dough is a fun and simple task that you can do with the whole family. Dough that you make yourself is flavorful and budget-friendly. All it takes is a handful of ingredients, a little energy,
and some time.
First, you need to start with the basics. All-purpose flour, water, oil, salt, and yeast are all you really need for pizza dough. The yeast is placed into warm water and allowed to proof. After a few minutes, the yeast will appear to
be frothy. From here you add the oil, salt, and flour. You can knead this by hand or by machine with a dough hook. For pizza dough with a chewy texture, you will want to knead about 20-30 minutes by hand or 15 minutes by machine.
Pizza becomes stretchy and chewy because of gluten. Gluten is formed when the flour is mixed with the water. For an even better pizza dough, use bread flour instead of all-purpose flour. Bread flour has a higher protein content than
all-purpose and will make the dough more chewy and flavorful. A bit of sugar can be added to the water to allow the yeast to proof even faster.
After kneading the dough, form it into a ball and coat it lightly with oil. Place it into a bowl, cover with plastic wrap or a towel, and allow it to rest. This may take 45 minutes to 2 hours depending on the weather. Warm weather will
allow the dough to rise faster. You can also let the dough rise in an oven set on a low temperature. Some electric ovens have a "rise" or "proof" setting which makes it very easy. Once the dough has doubled in volume,
punch it down and let it rest again. Punching it down will remove excess gas from the dough. Form it into a ball and this time, it only needs to rest for 20-30 minutes.
Now all you have to do is roll it out, top it, and bake. The dough can be rolled either with a rolling pin, by hand, or spun through the air like the shops do it. Be sure to work your dough by hand to loosen it when attempting this
method. You want the dough to be stretchy enough to spin but not too soft that it breaks apart. |
