Making pizza dough is a rewarding experience. You start with something simple, like flour, water and yeast, and end up with a delicious meal that everyone in your family will love.
It might seem like a pretty straightforward process, but there are some tricks you can use to ensure your pizza turns out just right. We asked some of America’s best pizza makers how they let their dough rise — from restaurants to bakeries to pizzerias — and here’s what they had to say:
When making pizza dough, it’s important to give it enough time to rise — and equally important not to overdo it.
When making pizza dough, it’s important to give it enough time to rise — and equally important not to overdo it. You don’t want your dough rising too long because you risk having a gummy or dense crust.
Similarly, your crust will be flat and flimsy if you under-rise your pizza dough. If this happens, the best way to fix it is by mixing more flour into the dough until it feels right.
It won’t taste as good if you don’t let your dough rise.
When you’re making pizza at home, the process of letting your dough rise can seem like something of a guessing game. But it doesn’t have to be. Pizza makers say there’s a science behind when and how long it takes for dough to rise properly.
Letting a pizza dough rise is essential for developing flavour in your finished product—and that’s why this is one step you shouldn’t skip if you’re making your crust at home (or even buying pre-made dough). To get an idea of how much time each type needs, let’s look at some specific numbers:
- Slow-rising: Between 1 and 3 hours at room temperature (about 70 degrees F)
- Rapid-rising: Just 30 minutes in a warm place (about 75 degrees F)
- Rapid-and-slow: An hour at room temperature followed by 30 minutes in a warm place
It’s important not to have too much yeast in the dough because that can make the pizza taste sour.
Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to ensure you don’t have too much yeast in your dough. For example, the instructions on most pizza dough packets will advise you to only use half of the packet at a time. This is because using all of it at once can cause your pizza to taste sour (due to too much yeast).
Another technique for ensuring your pizza dough has just enough yeast is keeping track of how many times you’ve risen and kneaded the dough. If you notice that every time you make a batch of dough, there’s more than enough leavening agent in each batch than previous ones—it likely means your yeast has been contaminated with bad bacteria or mould spores growing on top of it. In this case, try starting over with fresh ingredients, so they’re free from any potential pathogens causing an off-taste when baking pizzas!
Different temperatures will affect the rising time of the dough.
The dough’s temperature will also affect how long it takes to rise. Warmer temperatures will speed up the rising process, while cold temperatures will slow down the rise. If you’re planning on keeping your dough in the refrigerator after you’ve made it, take it out an hour before using it so that it can come back to room temperature before shaping or baking.
[…] pizza crust until it is set and lightly browned on the other side, about 5 minutes more. Add toppings as […]