Why, when we want to try real Italian pizza, then dial the phone number of the delivery service? Or do we go out to the city in a cafe? Yes, because when we try to cook pizza at home, we often get a thick Slavic open pie with filling. Also edible and even tasty, but still not quite what we wanted. The correct pizza dough should be thin, a little crunchy and at the same time tender and soft. Filling is of secondary importance. You can bake pies with the same set of products. But only the dough makes the culinary product pizza. How to learn to make such a basis? What is her secret? Is it really necessary to spend years to become a pizza maker - a certified master in the preparation of this type of baking? Not at all! Any person who does not even have special culinary talents can make pizza dough, as in a pizzeria. You just need to know some features, the nuances of kneading such a base. About them and our article will tell.
Recipe Overview
Pizza dough, in contrast to the basis for other baking, has its own characteristics. It must be very elastic. That is, so flexible that you, holding one edge of the dough, can stretch the bun in a wide layer, as thin as gauze. On the other hand, such a foundation must be strong. After all, the dough serves as a “basket” for the filling. The cake should never stick to the pan. Therefore, you should always include real olive oil in the list of ingredients. Most pizza dough recipes mention yeast. Thanks to these bacteria, the base is airy and light. But there are recipes in which the role of yeast is played by fermented milk products, primarily kefir. As for the remaining ingredients, they are basic. Of course, many pizza makers believe that you should take a mixture of ordinary flour and “durum” - from durum wheat. But that is not the point. The main thing that is required for a proper test is olive oil, wheat, yeast or lactic acid bacteria, water, salt and sugar. Do you think that kneading dough is a long, troublesome task and requires some virtuosity? There are recipes according to which you can put the filling on the basis of pizza in twenty minutes. However, the dish will only win if you work on it a quarter of an hour longer. Now, let's get acquainted with individual recipes.
Thin dough in record time
Many chefs prefer not to deal with yeast, considering kneading dough with them a long and difficult task. Bacterial culture is very capricious, loves a strict temperature regime and dies from the slightest draft. Yeast needs time to wake up. They multiply for a long time, raising the base with their activity. But the yeast dough is rich and gingerless. The latter method is simpler. And to make a very quick pizza dough, use dry yeast.
Combine a bag of this powder with flour (175 grams) and a pinch of salt. In a glass with 125 milliliters of water, add a tablespoon of olive oil. In dry ingredients, pour liquid. Knead the dough until smooth in a bowl. Then we transfer it to the table surface sprinkled with flour. We continue kneading for another three minutes. We form a bun, grease it with olive oil. We place in a bowl, which we cover with cling film. We put for forty minutes in a warm place. During this time, the dough will double in volume. Mesim two more minutes. We roll it into a thin layer, form the sides of the pizza. Spread the filling and bake.
Express dough
If you have already prepared the filling, then work with the pizza base can be started by turning on the oven. Before she has time to warm up to 130 degrees, you will already have a raw semi-finished product. In a bowl, mix two teaspoons of dried yeast and one sugar. Fill with a standard glass of warm water. The most optimal liquid temperature is 40-45 degrees. No thermometer? It doesn’t matter: try water with your finger. It should be very warm, but not scorching hot. Stir the yeast with sugar, let stand for ten minutes. To make a delicious pizza dough, sift 350 grams (or two and a half cups) of flour into a bowl. So you not only break the lumps, but also saturate the powder with oxygen. Knead flour with a teaspoon of salt. Loose mixture add to the yeast. Do not forget to add two tablespoons of olive oil. Knead the dough quickly. As soon as a homogeneous structure is obtained, let it stand for five minutes. Roll out a very thin pizza dough. Transfer to a baking sheet, grease with olive oil. Bake for five minutes. Then grease the sauce, spread the filling. We are sent to rest until readiness for another ten minutes.
Honey Dough Recipe
Only slightly complicate our work, but what an amazing result! Yeast pizza dough is thin and as if layered, crispy on the outside, but soft and tender on the inside. If you do not know what a dough is, let’s explain. We enable yeast to wake up and activate even before we start kneading. With this method of preparation, the dough is even more airy. Usually, the dough is made using warm, sugar-sweetened milk. But in this recipe, we activate yeast (a bag of dry product for 7 grams) with natural honey (tablespoon). Mix both ingredients and pour a glass of warm water. It is important that the liquid is not cold, otherwise the yeast will not wake up. And hot water, above 50 degrees, will simply destroy the entire colony. Stir the dough with a fork and leave it in a warm place without drafts for five minutes. You will learn that yeast has “earned” by the fact that a light foam has appeared on the surface of the liquid.
Kneading dough
We usefully use these five minutes while the dough is preparing. Sift into a bowl three glasses of flour, mix it with two pinches of salt. Pour a tablespoon of olive oil. Stir. Add the dough. Knead the dough. At first it will seem too cool to you. But don't worry: let it sit for about forty minutes in a warm place. The dough will completely change its texture. It will become soft, supple and very elastic. True, this yeast pizza dough is rather capricious and demanding on the temperature of the environment. Therefore, in order not to take risks, we preheat the oven one hundred degrees, then turn it off and put the bowl with the bun covered with a wet towel inside. After forty minutes, we crumble the grown dough again and roll it into a thin layer. We form pizza. Bake it for at least a quarter of an hour at high temperature (220 degrees).
Butter Pizza Yeast Dough
First, heat up to 35 degrees a half glass of milk. We dissolve in it a bag of dry yeast or 15 grams of fresh. Butter is heated to a liquid state. We need two tablespoons of this product. Do not forget that the optimal temperature for the vital activity of yeast bacteria is 45 degrees. Therefore, before pouring the melted butter into the milk mixture, slightly cool it. Stir and start portioning the flour. In total, it should leave at least 200 grams, not counting the one with which you will numb the work surface in the process of kneading. Do not forget to season the pizza dough with a pinch of salt. Let the bun stand for about forty minutes. To prevent the dough from weathering, grease it with vegetable oil. After that, we crumple it once more and roll it out. If your microwave has a “Convection” mode, then pizza on such a test can also be cooked using such a kitchen device.
A bit of history
As follows from historical documents, tortillas with seasonal vegetables located on them and pieces of meat or fish were baked in ancient Greece. Then this dish took root in ancient Rome. The recipe for “flat bread” was not forgotten in the Middle Ages. And since the 17th century, when Europe began to eat tomatoes everywhere, pizza from the lunch of the poor turned into a gourmet delight from aristocratic circles. Over the centuries of the dish's existence, various recipes for kneading dough have appeared. All of them come from one set of products and even their proportions. But the algorithm of the baker’s actions is different. Let's make the pizza dough the way Italian masters do it. This is a laborious affair, but our efforts will pay off handsomely.
Classic recipe
Sift flour (preferably from durum wheat) on the table. At the top of such a slide we make a recess. Pour in the yeast. At the same time, kneading the flour from the periphery to the center, pour alternately either warm water or extra virgin olive oil. The dough will shrink into a tight lump. We salt it and knead it for ten minutes. Strong male hands are needed here. We ruthlessly crush hard dough, striking them against the countertop with force. But even after ten minutes of such work, it will remain “rubber”. Do not worry about this. We divide the dough into two or three parts. We roll each piece into a kolobok, tightly wrap it with cling film or put it in a hermetically sealed container. We put in the refrigerator for the night. The next day we form a cake from each piece. The correct, classic pizza dough needs to be rolled out without the help of a rolling pin. Grasping the edge of the piece, toss it with a rotational movement. From this, a very elastic dough is stretched into a thin layer. The Italian government is seriously considering introducing the DOC quality mark in relation to pizza, like wine. This patented product should be kneaded only by hand, without a rolling pin, and the product should only be baked on wood in a special oven.
Kefir dough
Lactic acid bacteria with the same success fluff the flour base as yeast. In addition, they are not capricious and do not require long upholding. So let's take kefir, sour cream, yogurt and even fresh milk as the basis of the test. First, consider the first recipe.
Kefir pizza dough is prepared like this. Melt five tablespoons of margarine or spread in a frying pan. The fire should be very small, the fat should not boil. Pour a glass of kefir into a wide bowl. It can be of any fat content. When choosing a fermented milk product, look for a label that says “bio.” This means that kefir contains a colony of living bacteria. Drive an egg into a bowl. Mix until smooth. Pour the melted margarine. Mix again. We begin to sift two glasses of flour directly into a bowl. Add a pinch of salt. When the dough reaches a consistency thick enough to knead with your hands, move it to the table. Sprinkle the surface with flour in advance. Such a dough does not need to be defended. It can be rolled out immediately and a pie formed.
In milk
As mentioned above, yeast-free pizza dough recipes are also plentiful. How to make the basis for a pie on fresh milk? Sift in advance two cups of flour on the table in the form of a slide. Add a teaspoon of salt to it. Drive two eggs into a bowl. Slightly heat one hundred milliliters of milk. Pour in a thin stream into the eggs. In no case should milk be hot, otherwise the protein will clot. Knead well. In a flour hill we make a funnel. Pour into it - not immediately, but in separate portions in two or three doses - the milk-egg mixture. Knead the dough in a circular motion, adding flour from the periphery of the hill to its center. Even when a tight bun is formed, do not stop working for another ten minutes. Sprinkle the palms with flour from time to time so that the dough does not stick to the fingers. The bun is wrapped in a damp cloth and left for a quarter of an hour at room temperature. This pizza is baked at a lower temperature than made on a yeast dough. Enough if you preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Depending on the thickness of the product, it will take from 20 minutes to half an hour to prepare. By the way, pizza dough in milk is perfectly stored. To do this, put the gingerbread man in a bag and keep it in the refrigerator. Shelf life of the product is four days.
Dough on the water
Do not forget that pizza has long been the food of the poor. And therefore, the products for its foundation were the most budgetary. In this recipe, we step back a bit from this rule and add an egg to the list of ingredients. So pizza dough without yeast will be more durable.
In a wide and deep bowl, mix the egg, one teaspoon of salt and sugar. Pour in 50 milliliters of olive oil. Whisk the whole mass with a whisk. Add a glass (200 milliliters) of water. Beat well again. It is important that the oil and water enter the compound. When the mass becomes homogeneous, add, sifting, two cups of flour. Knead the elastic dough. If it continues to stick to your hands, add another cup of flour. Roll out the dough immediately. We form a circle with sides, grease with sauce, lay out the filling of pizza. Bake at a temperature of 180-190 degrees. Making a pie may take 20 minutes.
Very crispy dough
Around the second half of the 18th century, pizza passed from the huts of the poor to the palaces of the aristocracy. They began to put in the pie not only the sardines but the cheese and sausage remaining after yesterday's dinner. Mozzarella, Camembert, noble Roquefort were used, and meat - prosciutto, salami and other delicacies. The changes affected not only the toppings, but also the pizza dough. Spicy herbs began to be added to the basis, and instead of yeast or whey - white wine. Let's look at one of these aristocratic recipes. The kneading process takes place in the usual way. But the products are a little different. We do not use baking powder as yeast, but wine bacteria and powder for cookies.
First of all, we sift on the table two parts of ordinary wheat flour and one part of corn. It is the latter that gives the finished test such an appetizing crunch. In a flour hill we mix salt, a tablespoon of dry oregano and a pack of baking powder (cookie powder). At the top we make a recess. Pour in two-thirds of the warm water. Knead, tossing flour from the periphery to the center. Add one third of a glass of white wine. Pour olive oil. Knead vigorously until the dough stops sticking to your hands and becomes malleable, like warm wax. Roll out, stack the filling and bake, as indicated in the classic recipe.
American pizza
In the 19th century, along with Sicilian ostarbeiters who massively emigrated to the United States, this dish reached the New World. In America, fast food lovers quickly appreciated the virtues of pizza. Hearty, tasty, varied. The most "pizzeria" city is known as Chicago. It was there that they thought of selling segments of the pie. So for the price of one pizza, you could try its different toppings. After World War II, pizza in the United States began to be sold everywhere. Now this dish takes the second place in the popularity rating after the burger. Also in America began to make very high sides of the dough circle. In such a pizza, you could put a lot of toppings, like on a sandwich. The pizza dough recipe has undergone changes. The base for the cake has become more magnificent. The crust in such a pizza is higher. How to make dough in American style?
Dissolve in a half glass of warm water, one teaspoon of salt and sugar. Pour into a bowl in which we will knead the dough. Add two tablespoons of olive oil. Sift 200 grams of flour into a separate container. Mix it with a teaspoon of dried yeast. Gradually pour the dry mass to the liquid. Knead the dough. It will be too soft, like dumplings. We cover it with a towel and leave it for half an hour in a warm place. During this time, the yeast will “fit”, the dough will increase in volume and become more elastic. We crush it, coat with olive oil. Leave in a warm place for another 20 minutes. The dough will increase even more in size. We roll it out not very thinly, forming a pizza measuring 30 centimeters in diameter. Bake it at 180 degrees for about 25 minutes.