The Art of Pizza, Chapter One: Dough

Related Post Roulette

4 Responses

  1. greginak says:

    Making dough is fun and a good thing. I use mostly whole wheat flour since its healthier then just white flour.Report

  2. zic says:

    Kimmi, I’m not sure why you don’t just run the stand mixer with dough hook longer to do the kneading for you. Let it go for about 10 minutes at a low speed if using regular flour; give it 15 or 20 if using a bread (high protein) flour.

    If you’re using a high protein flour, you need either a bread machine or stand mixer and dough hook to do the kneading; it’s nearly impossible to develop the gluten without mechanical aid. I’ve done it; it was awful, took me a week for the muscles to recover.

    Once the kneading’s done, just roll it on a lightly-floured surface to stretch the dough to form a skin; this ‘skin’ is actually a layer of elastic gluten on the outside of the ball, which helps contain the dough within as it rises. (This is why it’s important to shape loaves, particularly free-standing loaves baked without a pan or in a dutch oven, too.)Report