7 Most common Mistakes making Pizza Dough

Are you afraid of making mistakes?

Here you can find a small guide to making the perfect pizza at home.

1. Salt/Yeast Union: ” add the salt after dissolving the yeast”.
   The salt kills yeast cells: the leavening process is blocked. In Neapolitan pizza it is common to increase the quantity of salt during long leavening at room temperature in order to slow down the action of yeast. In classic doughs, salt is always diluted in water along with the yeast and therefore the damage is extremely reduced.

 

2. Wrong flour: dough will not turn out the way you want it.
   Every flour has its own preparation time. In order to make good dough: in case cookie flour is used to make pizza, it cannot be leavened for too many hours, otherwise the dough will get holes in itf. On the contrary, if you use manitoba flour to make pizza at home in three hours, it is very likely you will have a tough dough which after cooking will be rubbery and difficult to digest.
   Every pizza needs its own flour. It is not difficult, just get into this frame of mind.

 

3. Incorrect resting times: plan the leavening time to give support to the dough (gluten mesh).
   A second rest is needed when the dough ball is formed in order to make the dough easy to roll out and bake.
   Keep in mind that times are approximate because temperature and weather conditions also influence the rising of the dough.
   The important thing is to put the container where leavening takes place somewhere away from temperature changes.

 

4. Handle the dough too much: when dough is being made, care should be taken not to handle it too much.
   Kneading it again would cause a stiffening of the glutinous mesh, therefore cancelling out the advantages obtained by resting.
   After the final leavening, roll out the dough with delicacy and in case it should be too elastic, just wait some more to complete the rolling.

Remember that rolling out is a fundamental step in order to obtain a perfect homemade pizza.

 

5. Too much mozzarella: this dairy product is crucial in pizza making.
   Classic mozzarella always risks creating a lake effect on pizza. In order to avoid this: cut it in slices or strips and put it in a colander for two or three hours. Then squeeze it with hands and put it on pizza.
   Another way is to cut it the night before and leave it in the fridge in a covered colander.

 

6.Toppings and cooking times: the most practical example is mozzarella cheese which should be added towards the end of cooking.
Every condiment has its own cooking time, therefore it is necessary to consider this in order to not have bad surprises. There are toppings such as sliced meat which should be added raw when the pizza is out of the oven or others such as potatoes which should be cooked for 15-20 minutes.

 

7.The right oven temperature: pizza needs heat. It is usually cooked in a wood fired pizza oven with temperatures reaching 450 degrees and in electric ovens that reach 300 degrees. These types of ovens are hard to come by at home, so just bake the pizza with as much heat as possible. Preheat the oven to maximum and bake only when the maximum temperature has been reached. A static oven is preferable to a fan oven.

Discover the best ovens for homemade pizza.