Pizza Dough experts?

fly

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Oct 1, 2004
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I got around to making my first pizza dough last night. I used a recipe that someone here linked to (Erage?). I made some key mistakes. Some were obvious in hindsight, others are not.

Rule 1: Never use havarti cheese, or at least dont use it as the base, its too creamy/oily.

And the crust turned out very hard and tough throughout *most* of the pizza, but there was a small part that was perfect. Any ideas what I did wrong?

Thanks for the stone Dharma, be glad you werent here for the first one...
 
did you overknead the dough? the gluten sounds overdeveloped. either that or you didn't add the proper amount of yeast/liquid, and it didn't proof with any happy bubbles except for a small part.

i make my pizza crusts from a beer base- 1 cup beer, 1 tbsp sugar, 1 tbsp olive oil/butter, 1 tsp salt, 2 1/2 cup flour, and 1 tbsp active dry yeast. i knead it in a bread machine on the dough cycle or if i'm feeling punchy, i'll put it in the kitchenaid w/ dough hook and do 3 proof/punch cycles with it.
 
Using those stones can be tricky, they still cook the pizza after the oven is off. I'm too lazy to search, what was the dough recipe?
 
did you overknead the dough? the gluten sounds overdeveloped. either that or you didn't add the proper amount of yeast/liquid, and it didn't proof with any happy bubbles except for a small part.

i make my pizza crusts from a beer base- 1 cup beer, 1 tbsp sugar, 1 tbsp olive oil/butter, 1 tsp salt, 2 1/2 cup flour, and 1 tbsp active dry yeast. i knead it in a bread machine on the dough cycle or if i'm feeling punchy, i'll put it in the kitchenaid w/ dough hook and do 3 proof/punch cycles with it.

I could have overkneaded it, but I think underkneading it may have been more likely. I could have overused the dough hook tho, as that and kneading seem like they'd be similar...
 
Did you use a dough hook to mix the dough or did you try to do it by hand? Dough hooks are wonderful things if you have an electric mixer. Also, did you use the right kind of yeast? Did you let it rest and double in size before you broke it down for kneading?

I honestly don't remember linking to a dough recipe on here but the one I use has like 1 part wheat flour to 5 or 6 parts all purpose flour. It makes a chewier crust than most recipes.
 
Did you use a dough hook to mix the dough or did you try to do it by hand? Dough hooks are wonderful things if you have an electric mixer. Also, did you use the right kind of yeast? Did you let it rest and double in size before you broke it down for kneading?

I honestly don't remember linking to a dough recipe on here but the one I use has like 1 part wheat flour to 5 or 6 parts all purpose flour. It makes a chewier crust than most recipes.

wheat flour is what the mellow mushroom uses...semolina wheat iirc
:drool:
 
Did you use a dough hook to mix the dough or did you try to do it by hand? Dough hooks are wonderful things if you have an electric mixer. Also, did you use the right kind of yeast? Did you let it rest and double in size before you broke it down for kneading?

I used a mixer w/ a bread hook. Fast rising yeast was used and yes it doubled in size before I started kneading it...

I honestly don't remember linking to a dough recipe on here but the one I use has like 1 part wheat flour to 5 or 6 parts all purpose flour. It makes a chewier crust than most recipes.

This one was mostly bread flour with like a half cup of wheat flour.
 
I can't help you. I just use my bread machine to make and knead the dough. While it takes the hour and a half to do the dough making, I am heating the stone in the oven at 425F. Getting the constructed pizza on the painfully hot stone is the tricky part. The crust turns out very crispy on the outside and warm and billowy on the inside :drool:

At least that's how I made my chicken with artichoke heart and basil pesto sauce pizza :confused: