Don’t Throw Out Torn Dough….Try this Instead! | Pizza University & Culinary Arts Center (2024)

FAQs

What are 2 important things to remember when making pizza dough from scratch? ›

The underdeveloped gluten molecules will cause your dough to flop around and tear easily. While underworked dough can simply be fixed by a little more kneading, severely overworked dough cannot be fixed. Instead, the overworked dough will result in a hard loaf that will likely not be eaten.

Be sure to mix long enough … but not too long. Allow the dough to rest after mixing so the gluten strands relax a bit. Stretch the dough evenly to avoid thin spots which are susceptible to tearing. Don't overload a crust with heavy, wet toppings as stickiness can ensue.

First, try adding more liquid to the dough. This can be milk, water, or even just a little bit of extra oil. If that doesn't work, you can try kneading the dough for a few minutes to help it come together. Lastly, if all else fails, you can always add in a few tablespoons of flour to help bind the dough together.

If a dough seems dry it could be because the liquid isn't evenly distributed. The center of the dough can often be wet while the outside is dry. Give the dough a little extra kneading, just until it comes together, and that alone might be enough to fix it. If using a stand mixer, try finishing the dough by hand.

Pizza Express Ready Rolled Pizza Dough 400G - Tesco Groceries.

Any pizza dough with a complex flavor has been slow-fermented. All this means is that the yeast it contains has had ample time to eat the simple sugars in the flour. The longer the yeast has had to feast – ideally 24 to 48 hours – the lighter and more flavorful the pizza dough will be.

One of the most important elements – if not the most important element – of pizza is the dough.

If your dough is tearing when you stretch it out, this usually means that there's not enough gluten in your dough. Pizza dough needs flour with a high protein content in order to develop gluten. Most styles of pizza call for 00 flour or strong white bread flour.

Using too much water for the amount of flour you're using will result in a wet dough that's really hard to handle. Similarly, if your sourdough starter is too runny you may also end up with a super wet dough.

Why is my dough still sticky after kneading? ›

Overly sticky dough is normally caused by a combination of using the wrong flour and using too much water. I discuss these points in more detail above but in short: choose a flour that's produced for bread baking. These are normally labelled “Bread” or “Strong” flour.

All-purpose flour is suitable for most purposes such as baking, cooking, coating meats, vegetables and as a thickening agent for sauces and gravies. A mixture of hard wheat which contains more gluten and soft wheat are ground together to make all-purpose flour.

The wrong flour type can cause the dough to be sticky as it may not be strong enough. When making pizza dough, the flour should be strong in gluten, as this makes it stretchy and easier to work with. You can tell the flour is strong in gluten by looking at the percentage of protein in it.

Given that you are just at the kneading stage you would need to ferment ("rise" - though yours won't; it'll just go bubbly) the dough. Then you can simply take some of the dough and add it to a fresh batch of ingredients.