A Mother’s Day Breakfast

Posted on: 17 July 2015

If you have not been successful at making your own pizza dough at home, then you will be happy to know that there are some simple things you can do to greatly improve its quality.

Making good pizza dough is a skill, and by following these tips you can improve your pizza dough making skills today:

Tip 1: Choose the Right Flour

Since the main ingredient in pizza dough is flour, choosing the correct type of flour will greatly improve your pizza crust quality and texture. Here is information on each common type of flour and how they affect pizza dough:

• All-Purpose Flour is low in protein and not very water absorbent. This makes all-purpose flour pizza dough have a tougher consistency.
• Bread Flour is a high protein flour that is water absorbent. This makes bread flour pizza dough have larger air pockets and a chewier texture.
• Cake Flour is the lowest in protein and absorbance of the common baking flours. Cake flour is good for use in thin crust pizzas when you want a "cracker" type of crust.

You can also change up your recipe by mixing the different types of flours together in different proportions until you get the consistency you desire.

Tip 2: Properly Knead the Dough

As you knead your pizza dough, the proteins join together and form gluten. The higher the protein in the flour you use, and the more you knead the dough, the more air bubbles will form in the dough. These air bubbles are what give your pizza crust a chewy texture.

Since kneading the pizza dough is vital for its success, you should knead the dough using:

• a mixer with a dough hook
• a food processor
• your hands on a flour-coated cutting board.

Mix the dough until it is elastic and has a shine when formed into a ball.

Tip 3: Understand Changes Required to Make Thin Crusts

If your family prefers to eat pizzas with a thin crust, then you should use cake flour to make your pizza dough. Cake flour is available at all grocery stores and works well because it is very low in protein and is not very water absorbent.

The problem with low-absorbent flour is that it can result in a soggy pizza if you add a lot of sauce or toppings on top of it. To prevent sogginess, you should pre-bake the pizza crust for about ten minutes before you top the pizza. This will cook the outside of the crust and help keep the moisture from soaking into the dough while it finishes cooking.

Conclusion

By following these simple tips, you can create pizza dough that rivals even the best pizzeria. For additional tips for making quality pizza dough, you can speak with the baker at your local pizza restaurant.