Making pizza dough - some basic questions?

You can give the dough a second kneading, but then you will need to let it “relax” for a half an hour or so, because kneading activates the glutens in the flour.

I don’t have too much experience with thin crust, but I have made my fair share of pizzas
After the initial rise, you “punch down the dough” which is inaccurate, you just gently push down on it in several places to redistribute the bubbles. Yes it does deflate at this point. Let it rise another 10 minutes and then shape it. To get a thin crust; don’t let it rise after shaping or topping. bake on a pizza stone, and preheat the oven (which will take 30–40 min with the stone).

i.ve always found that mdough shrinks a little after it’s rolled out, but still tastes great. yes, sue a pizza stone. what a difference!

You can buy 8” square quarry tile very inexpensively at Home Depot or Lowes, and just line an oven rack with them, instead of buying a pizza stone. Great for bread, too. Use a little cornmeal to keep dough from sticking. I use 4 tiles.

@pdworkin Great idea. It’s the same thing, but is ¼ of the price.

maybe I don’t have a good stone. It was on sale for $5

If it works, it’s good.

you can let it rise after shaping

Is there a noticeable difference between using a pizza stone and a pizza “crisper” tray?

Btw thanks for the help guys. I’ll let the dough rise after shaping/kneading next time.

I think you will like stone better. And here’s another trick for bread and pizza: Get a spray bottle, and after you have preheated the stone or tile, really hot, and shoved in the bread or pizza, spray some water on the stone and slam the door real quick. You’ll get a burst of steam that will make the crust crackly and crispy.

I also have a fan oven so i’m not sure how much the stone would help improve. And do you mean shoving the water before putting the pizza on or after? I assume you spray it around the side of the pizza yeah?

right. spray the stone, not the dough. but the dough has to be in the oven.

Hmm I still feel a bit confused. Is there a youtube video or something showing this? I think I shall keep to my pizza tray for now as the pizzas I make seem pretty nice already. Maybe in the future when I want to upgrade to perfection I will. Along with buying glass saucepans, a fondue set and loads more awesome kitchen gizmos.

I just heard on an old CSI that there is superfine flour only used for pizza dough. Yes, I’m multitasking here