How to Make Pizza Dough Puff Up

Great pizza starts with how you treat the dough.

Many people are often disappointed when they try to make their own pizza at home. While they have the best of intentions, they create a pizza destined to be flat and hard on the bottom. Puffy pizza crust has substance and can hold many more toppings than thin and floppy crust. Treat your dough correctly and you'll be rewarded with high-rising crust in your next pizza endeavor.

Things You'll Need

• Pizza dough
• Baking sheet
• Vegetable oil
• Plastic wrap
• Pizza sauce
• Spoon
• Shredded mozzarella cheese
• Pizza toppings
• Corn meal
• Pizza stone
• Oven

Instructions

1. Choose a pizza dough with high-gluten flour. Purchase balls of pizza dough at the grocery store or a local pizza shop.

2. Pour vegetable oil onto a cookie sheet in a thin coating. Roll your dough into a tight ball with a smooth top surface. Place the dough ball onto the cookie sheet with the top down to oil the top of the dough. Flip the dough ball over so that the oiled smooth top is facing up. Cover the dough and pan with plastic wrap, pushing down on the wrap so that it touches all sides of the dough ball.

3. Place the dough into the refrigerator to slowly rise for 8 to 12 hours. If you put it in first thing in the morning it will be perfectly risen and ready to go at dinner time.

4. Remove the dough ball from the pan by sliding a spatula underneath it to loosen the dough from the metal. Stretch the dough out to create a large round disk.

5. Turn over the cookie sheet and sprinkle a thick layer of corn meal on the bottom. Place the dough disk onto the corn meal. Continue stretching the dough until it is 1/4 inch thick.

6. Spread sauce over the dough disk, leaving the outer 1/2 inch bare. Add cheese and toppings to your pizza. The amount of cheese and pizza toppings depend on your taste and preferences. Keep the toppings light for the highest rise, as a lot of toppings will weigh down the dough. Allow the finished raw pizza to rest for 10 minutes.

7. Place a pizza stone into a cold oven on the bottom shelf. Set the oven temperature to 500 degrees Fahrenheit, or the hottest setting your oven has. Allow the stone and oven to heat for 10 to 15 minutes.

8. Slide the rested pizza from the bottom of the pan onto the hot pizza stone in the oven. Bake the pizza for about 3 minutes, then use a spatula to turn the pizza around so that the crust in the front is facing the back. Bake the pizza for an additional 3 to 4 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown.

Tips & Warnings

• Don't use a thicker piece of dough trying to get a thicker final crust. Thicker dough won't cook in the middle and you will have raw dough instead of bready fluffy crust.

References

• O Chef: The Difference Between Bread Flour & Gluten Flour