What's the Dough secret?

[PlanoPhil]

I'm getting real close to cooking my first pizza in my WFO and my nephew who worked in a pizzerea told me that he could tell by toughing the dough ball that it was gonna be easy or difficult to stretch. It's all in the making of the dough, he said. So, I'm looking at dough receipts and they all look basically the same.
What's the secret?

[fishn4daze]

Use caputo 00 flour and don't use oil in the receipe. Also use a scale in grams to measure your product. Good luck and have fun.

[Tman1]

Well, I beg to differ with no oil. Too many recipes, too little time. I started out with Wolfgang Puck's pizza dough recipe, but really like Reinhart's Neopolitan at the moment. I still want to try an overnight (or multiple day) ferment to see how that changes.
Different recipes are part of the fun.

[dmun]

I'm looking a dough receipts and they all look basically the same.

If the recipe you're looking at has sugar, honey, milk solids, or anything of the sort, stay away. These additives are an attempt to get pizza to brown in a home oven.

I'm in the no-oil school as well. It's not like you're not putting a lot of fats on top of the skin.

[Tscarborough]

The secret to dough is:

Flour, water, yeast, and salt.

Everything else is technique, and like a certain excretory orifice, everyone has one.

[heliman]

Use an overnight fermented biga! Nothing more than water, flour & yeast and you will be pleasantly surprised at the results.

No additives for me ... against the law!! (as are rolling pins)....

[PlanoPhil]

Heliman, what's a fermented biga?

[heliman]

Originally Posted by PlanoPhil

Heliman, what's a fermented biga?

I make a starter dough by mixing a 60% hydration flour, water and a small amount of yeast and placing it in the fridge overnight to make a "starter" for my main batch of dough. I calculate the amount of starter as a % of the main batch for consistency then factor to that into my final calculation to produce the required number of 270g dough balls. Da Michele and other well known pizzerias use a starter too. In my view it produces a smoother and lighter crust. After much experimentation I settled on this method and it has produced consistently good results for the past year.

[Faith In Virginia]

I make a true sourdough pizza dough. I use a large amount of sourdough starter in my mix and I do prefer a bit of oil. I like a big breadie crust so in my opinion the oil keeps the inner part nice and soft and the outside soft enough so that the family members with false teeth can have an easier chew.

Biga is a pre-ferment. It adds nice flavor to your dough it is a mix of a small amount of yeast to flour and water and left on the counter to ferment usually for 12 to 24 hours then you add this to the dough mixture. This takes some pre-planning but is well worth the effort.

[scottz]

I think the secret is just learning how to do it. The recipie on here is fantastic, but to get that dough just right takes a bit of pratice, I think 14 months is what it took me to get it right. Just use really good flour (strong bread '00'), really good sea or rock salt, filtered water and technique. I love to stretch mine, although my wife likes hers really thin, almost a crunchie base, so I docker it and sometimes (grrrrrr!!) roll hers out! Good luck and keep going

Scott