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How to Roll Pizza Dough by Hand
Using fresh dough can give your pizza a rustic charm, but without a good rolling technique your dough can go from perfect crust to useless glob in a heartbeat. Pizza dough is notoriously temperamental. Add too little flour and the dough is too sticky to handle; add too much and it rips easily. Rolling your own pizza dough can be a fun, tactile cooking experience that adds another level of complexity to a delicious meal. Add this to my Recipe Box.
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Things You'll Need
- Pizza dough, homemade or store-bought
- Flour
- Olive oil
- Rolling pin (optional)
- Cornmeal (optional)
Instructions
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1
Sprinkle the dough and your hands with flour to prevent sticking. As you stretch the dough, add a little flour if it begins to stick to your hands or rolling pin. However, do not add too much flour because the dough rips easily if it becomes too dry.
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2
Knead the dough into a ball and slightly flatten it onto a floured surface.
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3
Let the dough sit for 10 to 15 minutes so it will become more pliable. This allows the gluten to relax so that the dough will be less elastic and easier to stretch.
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4
Work from the center of the dough, gently stretching it with your fingers. Slowly rotate the dough as you knead to ensure it stretches evenly.
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5
Stretch the dough until it reaches the desired size. You can finish stretching the dough by either slowly kneading it with your hands or picking the dough up and lightly pulling it with your fingers. For those new to rolling pizza dough, consider using a rolling pin coated in flour to finish the process since it will be easier to prevent tears.
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Coat both sides of the dough with olive oil to keep it from sticking to the cooking surface and to give the dough a nice brown hue.
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Tips & Warnings
Always handle the dough with dry hands to keep it from sticking.
Be delicate with the dough to prevent it from ripping.
Instead of olive oil, dust the cooking pan with cornmeal to keep the dough from sticking.
Instead of flour, use a little olive oil to keep dough from sticking. However, dough can become too slick to handle easily.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit Jupiterimages/liquidlibrary/Getty Images
