I have tried 3 times (not recently, but still…) to make decent homemade pizza crust, and it just won’t happen. I have gotten recipes off Allrecipes.com, which have been reviewed extensively and found to be excellent, but every time I try the end result is tough and dense. I followed the directions, I swear! Is a thinish, airy, slightly-chewy-but-not-dense pizza crust too much to ask? I am good at the imprecise art of cooking, but I don’t bake much. I can use measuring cups when necessary. Please advise! Thanks!
How are you kneading? If you’re using a stand mixer, you may be kneading too much. It’s almost impossible to overknead when kneading by hand.
Are you letting the dough rise enough? It needs to rise to about twice its size in bulk before it’s ready. Let it sit about 10 minutes after you add the toppings before you bake it.
A hot, hot oven and a pizza stone make a world of difference.
I was kneading by hand, and let the dough rise to double and all that. I did not let stand for 10 min after the toppings. Should I put the oven all the way up to 500 (w/pizza stone in it, of course)?
I’d heat the pizza stone, first, myself. Set it to preheat with the oven. Then transfer the pizza to the stone, if you can.
For a non-stick use a dusting of corn meal.
I also don’t know just how thick a pizza crust you want. My goal is the thin, almost cracker crust, but I’ve not gotten that, yet.
The recipe I use for pizza dough comes from the new Joy of Cooking: (From memory)
4 cups flour
1 and 1/3 cups lukewarm water (though I often cheat on this, and just use fridge water)
between 1/2 and 1 teaspoon salt. (Don’t forget the salt. Trust me on this.)
2 tablespoons of either butter or olive oil. (I use extra virgin olive oil, myself.)
mix and knead.
450-500 is the best temperature, IMO. Adjust the time appropriately.
Absolutely as hot as your oven gets. I bake all my pizzas at 500. The temperature at pizza joints with food-fired brick ovens is about 800 degrees. Since a home oven can’t get that hot, go as high as you can.
I’ll just confirm that overkneading will kill the rise. I use the recipe from The Joy of Cooking (or slighly modified versions depending on what kind of crust I’m trying to make) which is quite simple and almost as easy to do by hand as to do with a processor/mixer and its attendent cleaning.
Also (and this is critical) roll out or overstretch your crust! Doing so removes the texture and overworks the gluten, leading to a flat, dry, easily staled crust. Instead, you should take the ball of dough (after it has risen) and, starting from the center, work it flat with your thumbs, working around over and over until you got it the desired thickness and diameter. Let the crust rest for about ten minutes after shaping before you throw toppings on; you can use this time to preheat the oven and pizza stone. If you want to toss it for a few times just for the fun of it, be my guess, but all you’re really going to do is stretch it out in the middle.
Another tip; a lot of pizza books tell you to put cornmeal on the stone to prevent the crust from sticking. This (mostly) works, but it’s messy, and you need to clean off the meal in between, assuming you are cooking multiple pizzas. Instead, when you form out the crust, put baking parchment (looking in the baking section, next to wax paper) under the crust; this will let you easily slide the pizza on and off of a wooden peel and pizza stone without having it stick and throw the toppings all over the place, and when you’re done, just remove the parchment and throw it away.
475-500 F should be about right for temperature; unless you’re making a Chicago-style deep pizza or a double crust pie it shouldn’t take more than 9-12 minutes to cook (and with the deep dish types, remember that they’ll keep cooking after you pull them out, so don’t overdo it.
OtakuLoki, your recipe looks mostly right, but you’re missing the yeast (1 tablespoon, or less of fast rise), which should sit in about 1/4 cup of warm (~130F water) for five minutes before mixing. I think you’re light on the olive oil, too; IIRC it should be (3) tablespoons.
I recommend Angeli Caffe, Pizza, Pasta, Panini as a good guide to casual Italian food, but then Angeli Caffe (over on Melrose) is one of my favorite casual restaurants in L.A. Even’s crust recipe is essentially identical to that found in The Joy of Cooking, so I assume it’s a pretty traditional and standard recipe.
Making good crust is an art, and it takes time to perfect. (I don’t claim I’m there yet, but my victims have all been effusively appreciative of my efforts.) Keep at it, and good luck.
Stranger
If your dough is tough, then you are almost certainly kneading it too much.
You may also wish to use bread flour instead of regular all-purpose flour.
Bread flour will make the crust thicker (although, if not overkneaded, still fairly light). I think the OP is looking for a thin crust, though, so she’d want to stick with good quality unbleached all-purpose flour.
Stranger