hey - bread-baking friends... question.

[rmd]

okay, so, i tried making pizza dough a while back, and it turned out kind of mediocre. it ended up being too crunchy for the thickness. (if it had been cracker-like and a quarter inch thick, that would be cool. but cracker-hard and half and inch thick is *bad*.)

how do i get my crust to be less "solid thick brick" consistency? i tried rolling it out thinner but it really wasn't willing.

suggestions?

thanks!

Comments

I got to this late, but...

[(Anonymous)]

Olive oil is one of the keys. Don't use extra-virgin unless you want olive-flavored pizza dough, though. My recipe calls for a tablespoon of it (along with 3 cups of flour, 1 to 1.25 cups of flour, and a teaspoon each of yeast and salt). It works well with either bread flour or APF.

If it wasn't willing to be rolled thinner (incidentally, most sources i've seen recommend against using a roller, but I forget why), it probably needed to be let to rest for a couple minutes. Dough is only willing to stretch a certain amount at a time.

Pizza is best baked at the highest temperature your oven can manage. (Commercial pizza ovens run around 800F.) This gets the dough baked before the cheese and toppings burn.

I made calzones tonight for the first time. They came out OK even though I overfilled them and they leaked. They're a lot of work though.

-Chip.