How to Roll Out Pizza Dough Without a Rolling Pin
Almost every fourth dimension I see someone making a pizza on Television receiver or in a motion picture, someone somewhere is using a rolling pin. It makes sense, after all. You're trying to brand a round ball of dough flat, and so why not use a rolling pin rather than stretch it out by hand?
In near cases, rolling out pizza dough with a rolling pin will give you an inferior crust compared to stretching it out past hand. This is because a rolling pivot will pop all the pockets and bubbles of gas that are created during fermentation inside the dough. Without all the air and gas trapped in these pockets, your pizza will bake into a flat and dumbo pizza crust.
But while it's usually a better idea to stretch your pizza dough out past manus, information technology isn't always improve. A prime counter instance is when you lot're aiming for an extra sparse crust pizza.
Permit'due south go over why stretching by hand is amend, how to stretch by hand and so go over some examples of when using a rolling pin is actually benign.
A Pizza Dough Should Be Stretched By Hand To Preserve Gas & Air Pockets
The best manner to handle a pizza dough is very gently so equally to preserve as much of the network or air and gas pockets as possible. In fact, nosotros're looking to push button and press the air from the center of the pizza dough into the outer edges of the crust. This is what gives pizza its characteristic puffy chaff, especially in a Neapolitan way pizza.
Remember that when we allow a dough rise later kneading and and then proof before stretching, what we're doing is allowing the yeast to feed on the sugars within the flour of the ingredients. When this happens, the yeast gives off gasses such as C02 which filled the small air pockets that occur naturally within the dough.
When this gas is heated in the oven, it expands the air pockets and gives united states of america the puffy and soft crust we all love.
A rolling pin, in near cases, is besides big and volition crush the outer crust while causing all the air and gas to escape. This defeats the entire purpose of letting the dough proof before using it and will almost always get out you with a dense and hard crust.
Stretching the dough by hand is the best style to preserve all of this air and gas within the dough because we can avert touching the outer chaff entirely.
How To Stretch pizza dough without a rolling pin
Stretching a pizza past hand without a rolling pin can seem like an incommunicable chore at first, but that'due south usually because the pizza dough hasn't been prepped correctly. In fact, stretching a pizza dough past hand is really incredibly piece of cake.
To stretch pizza dough without a rolling pin, offset with a room temperature dough on a bed of semolina flour. Gently push and printing the air from the center of the dough out into the outer edges of the crust.
Permit Your Dough Proof To Brand It Less Elastic
The biggest problem people run into when stretching pizza dough by hand is when the dough is overly rubberband. This happens when the gluten network within the dough is too strong which causes information technology spring dorsum to its original position every fourth dimension yous effort to stretch it.
The easiest way to get around this is to just give the dough time to rest at room temperature. When a pizza dough is prepared correctly, information technology will exist given fourth dimension to proof equally dough ball at room temperature for approximately 1-2 hours. This gives the gluten in the dough a chance to relax which volition brand it much easier to stretch.
Hydrate Your Pizza Dough To Make Information technology Softer
We all know that adding extra hydration to your dough will make the crust softer subsequently it bakes, only it will too brand the dough itself softer and easier to work with as well.
A highly hydrated dough will have a slightly weakened gluten network due to being flooded out by backlog water. This will help to make the dough much easier to stretch by hand. If baking in a dwelling oven, aim for 65-70% hydration for best results.
Stretch The Pizza Dough By Gently Pressing And Pushing Information technology By Hand
Place your proofed dough brawl on a thick bed of semolina flour before you exercise anything with information technology. You want the dough to be completely coated in flour and so when you begin to push and press information technology, it won't stick to your hands or your countertop.
To stretch your pizza dough by hand, start by gently patting down the heart of the dough to flatten it slightly. Then use the flat side of your fingers to slowly work the air from the middle of the dough out into the outer crust, but never touch on the outer crust itself. Effort to leave as much air in the dough equally possible for a soft crust.
Slowly rotate the dough every bit you lot practise this to go an even level on all sides. Flip the dough over occasionally too and grit with semolina to make certain all of the sticky parts are coated and dry.
Echo this process equally many times every bit needed and when yous're washed the middle of the dough should be shaped like a pizza with a flat middle and puffy rim.
The Neapolitan Slapping Technique Will Stretch Your Pizza Dough Very Speedily By Mitt
The Neapolitan slapping technique is a method for stretching pizza dough perfected past pizza masters in Naples over the centuries. This method starts off the aforementioned as the method above, by gently pressing the air from the middle to the edges, merely is sped up considerably by pulling and slapping the dough against the countertop.
Basically what you do with this technique is to hold the dough confronting the countertop with one hand while pulling gently with the other. And then the dough is flipped onto your open plan and "slapped" down on your piece of work surface. This has the do good of pressing the air from the center to the edges while as well shaking off whatsoever excess flour before baking it in the oven.
While this method is extremely effective, it's not for beginners. Without do, y'all can very hands destroy your pizza dough by tearing it or accidentally folding it over onto itself. In fact, this is a method I'one thousand yet trying to become adept at myself and I've been practicing it for years.
Merely considering it's such an iconic and efficient way of stretching pizza dough, I've included here. If anything, it gives yous a good idea of what you're trying to accomplish when stretching pizza dough by hand.
Tossing Pizza Dough Into The Air Is Generally A Gimmick
You've nearly probable seen movies and Television shows where the pizza maker is twirling and flipping the dough up in the air. This is especially prevalent in shows set in New York City.
But stretching pizza dough by tossing it in the air is mostly a gimmick and comes with quite a few risks. For i, even an experienced pizza maker can drop the dough and ruin it. When this happens the only place the dough will be tossed again is in the trash.
This is why it'south best to keep with the traditional method of pressing information technology gently to displace the air from the middle to the edges.
With all that being said, tossing the dough and spinning it in the air technically does get the job done. Information technology's basically taking advantage of gravity and the spinning causes everything from the middle to piece of work its style evenly out to the edges similar a planet spinning in space.
But it's merely too risky and takes up as well much space in a crowded kitchen to be done finer. This is mostly done by expert pizzaiolos as a kind of party trick to impress the cameras, who volition and so go back to stretching it the normal way when they're gone.
A Pizza Roller Can Be Used As A Prophylactic Alternative To A Rolling Pin
The main reason why using a rolling pin is bad is because most are simply also big. This means you tin't curlicue the eye of the dough without also rolling the sides of the crust and crushing information technology.
But there are some alternatives y'all can think about trying, such as a "pizza roller" similar this 1
.
A pizza roller is substantially a miniature rolling pin that can ringlet the middle without agonizing the air and gas in the edges too much. Yous would use this the same way you lot would stretch it past manus – by starting gently in the center and working the air out into the edges of the dough.
And while this tin piece of work well, I personally would just recommend doing it by mitt. I call up the slightly uneven and bubbly middle of the crust add sometime to the finished product when information technology comes out of the oven. Doing it past manus is also free.
Just don't hesitate to give pizza roller a try if you recall information technology volition assist you!
Pizza Dough Should Be Proofed For 1-ii Hours Before Hand Stretching
The fundamental to stretching your pizza dough effectively relies on properly prepared dough. And the fashion to do this best is to let the dough proof for enough time earlier even touching it.
Your pizza dough should be prepped into balls with taught skin and an fifty-fifty limerick. This is a bit of a skill in itself and does not mean but rolling a piece of dough between your easily into a rough ball and leaving it.
In one case the brawl has been formed and placed into a covered container dusted with semolina flour, it needs to proof for at nearly one-two hours at room temperature (depending on the temperature of your room).
This proofing process is so crucial because it'due south what gives the pizza dough the gas and air we want to preserve by hand stretching it. Proofing also gives the gluten bonds in the dough, what gives it its strength and elasticity, a chance to relax
A Rolling Pin Can Work Great With A Sparse Chaff Pizza
Some styles of pizza actually work well using a rolling pin, such pizza with an extremely thin chaff. This is because these styles of pizza are not supposed to have puffy edges but instead take toppings going from edge to edge.
I typically don't bother with thin crust very much because my favorite styles, Neapolitan and NYC style, are both quite thin as it is. But there is one way of thin chaff pizza that I really love.
"Bari Style" Pizza Is Very Sparse Chaff & Rolled With A Rolling Pin
In the pizzerias in and effectually Bari, Italia there is a pop thin crust style of pizza. The dough is only about half the sized of a normal Neapolitan pizza (around 120g each) and is rolled out extremely sparse using a rolling pin. The pizza is so topped from edge to edge with only minimal crust showing.
This pizza is delicious and is basically a thin crust version of your traditional Neapolitan pizza margherita. It works because while the dough is extremely apartment, it's also not very much dough either so it doesn't become dumbo. The super-hot oven also cooks it very chop-chop so the thin crust still retains some moisture.
If y'all want to run into more about this "Bari manner" pizza, cheque out Bari'south own pizza master Vito Iacopelli gives yous a expect at what it's similar and how to make one yourself.
NYC's Lucalli Pizza Is Extremely Pop & Rolled With A Rolling Pin
If you've been paying attention to the NYC pizza scene for the terminal several years, you've likely heard most the ascent of Lucali, an extremely highly rated pizzeria out of Brooklyn, NY.
Lucali's pizza is also a great instance of a manner of pizza that proves the exception to the dominion virtually hand stretching your pizza dough. This pizza's crust bakes extremely sparse while yet maintaining a small amount of air in the crust.
Lucali's pizza recipe manages to pull this off past rolling out the dough with a rolling pin to initially open it up, merely then switching to a manual stretching method to maintain that last bit of air in the outer chaff. This is helped by non extending the ingredients to the outer crust which lets the chaff puff out a fleck.
This pizza is the cosmos of the owner, Marker Lacono, merely is really remarkably similar to the "Bari fashion" pizza I described above. The biggest difference is the size, with a Bari way pizza being no bigger than a standard Neapolitan pizza at around ten inches, and Lucali following the NYC standard at around 18 inches.
Concluding Thoughts
Ultimately, if you demand to use a rolling pin considering y'all're humble about hand stretching, that'southward fine.
Just you should know that with a bit of practice you can commencement making more varied kinds of pizza with manus stretching, especially kinds with light and blusterous crusts.
If you need help getting started making and working with high hydration pizza dough, be sure to check out my recipe.
How to Roll Out Pizza Dough Without a Rolling Pin
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