Everybody loves pizza. Carbonara, Margherita, four cheeses… There is an endless range of pizzas that can be created depending on the ingredients you add to the base. But there’s no doubt that to make a pizza really irresistible, the key is good dough. Would you like to make delicious homemade pizza dough? Write down these tips to make sure it turns out perfect.
The flour
A key rule in cooking is: to get the best flavour, you need the best ingredients. This means you have to think carefully when choosing the flour for your homemade pizza dough. Always choose bread flour. It is ideal for bread and pizza dough because it gives more elasticity, and it takes less time to rise.
The secret of homemade pizza dough: time
The most important thing you should know when making your own homemade pizza dough is that you will need to be patient and plan the meal ahead with enough time. Generally, it is recommended to prepare the pizza dough at least 12 hours before eating. This will make the dough ferment correctly and double its size. However, the longer you let it rest, the better it will be. So, you can let it sit for up to 24 hours. You’ll taste the difference!
Elasticity
Would you like to achieve a much more elastic homemade pizza dough? The trick is to add a little more olive oil. Ideally, you’ll check how it stretches and depending on whether it needs more elasticity, add a little bit more or oil. If, on the other hand, you like your dough slightly denser (Argentinian style), instead of adding more olive oil you’ll need to add more flour.
The temperature
To make your dough ferment correctly, the room temperature must be between 20 and 28 degrees. If the temperature in your home is below this, we recommend using this trick: turn on your oven for 5-10 minutes at 50 degrees, turn it off and after 5 minutes, place the dough in the oven to ferment.
Kneading the dough
Once the dough has risen, it is time to knead it. It is recommended to clean the surface on which you are going to stretch it thoroughly and dust it with flour. If the dough sticks too much to your fingers, you can grease them with oil instead of dusting them with flour. However, it’s best for you to try a few methods for yourself until you find the best solution.
Baking
Let’s assume that, just like most of us mere mortals, you don’t have a wood oven at home. The best thing to do then is to bake your homemade pizza dough on an oven tray (instead of a rack). And if you have a stone for the oven, the results will be even better. Place the tray at the bottom of the oven to get your pizza dough to cook evenly.
Now you know all the secrets to make delicious homemade pizza dough, what are you waiting for? Don’t forget that, once stretched, you can freeze your pizza dough to be used another day.