Without even looking at your pizza, you should be able to know how it was made. Put your eyes shut and give it a whirl on your tongue before you take a bite.

You can tell your pizza was made with a roller or a dough sheeter (a motorized roller) if it has a homogeneous, dense, and crumbly texture, as this results from the carbon dioxide being pushed out of the dough during the flattening process. Degassing the dough is the term used by bakers for this procedure.

A hand-stretched crust will have more holes and be lighter in texture. The cook's fingers worked the dough, creating and amplifying air pockets that inflated the gas as the bread baked.

The result has the texture of bread but with greater oven spring, blistering, and color and texture variations.

Rolling vs Stretching Pizza Dough: Which One is Better

Pizza dough can be rolled out or stretched by hand. Stretching is a must, according to some chefs. However, both can and frequently are used to make pizza. To sum up what it means to use a rolling pin:

• Some may find it less scary if they don't have to figure out how to make their money go further.
• You'll end up with a delicate, paper-thin crust.
• There is less airiness in the crust.

Do you know why thin-crust pizzas are cut in the square?

When the dough is stretched by hand, these things happen:

• Avoiding firm or overworked dough, which can make the glutens in the dough more difficult to work with, is a significant benefit. Dough that has been worked too much becomes tough, is difficult to stretch, and may shrink or spring back when flattened.
• The air pockets you manage to hold on to make up for the lack of crunchiness in the crust.
• The final product has a thicker crust.

There is a disparity between them, however. You can make two different kinds of pizza with two other cooking techniques. Using one over another is a matter of taste and the type of pizza you intend to produce.

Pizzas made with rolled dough are often flatter and thinner. It is thin but quite dense. And this works just fine with pizzas made in the New York, St. Louis, or Neapolitan styles. Check how proofing the dough can make a difference.

The best approach to achieve a light, airy crust is to stretch the dough. Yeast produces gas bubbles, which increase volume and fluffiness.

Those air pockets in the dough won't disappear no matter how much you knead it. It will shuffle them about, merging smaller air pockets into larger ones. However, it can also reduce the size of certain formerly enormous ones.

However, the bubbles remain once all is said and done. A complete obliteration hasn't happened to them. Because of this, the resulting dough is airier, making it perfect for pizzas with a thicker crust.

The Neapolitan Slapping Technique To Stretch Pizza Dough

The pizza masters of Naples have devised a method of stretching pizza dough known as the Neapolitan slapping technique.

The first step, forcing the air from the center to the sides, is the same as the first, but this one speeds things up significantly by pulling and slapping the dough against the counter. By holding the dough against the counter with one hand and pulling gently with the other, you can get the desired results in this method.

Then you "slap" the dough down on the open plan and flip it over. This helps distribute air evenly from the center to the borders and removes any excess flour before you bake it.

Although this strategy has a high success rate, it is not recommended for novices. It's easy to ruin pizza dough by tearing it or accidentally folding it over on itself if you haven't done it before. Even after years of practice, I'm still not very adept at using this approach.

It's not necessary, but I added it because it's a traditional and effective way to stretch pizza dough. If nothing else, it will give you a solid sense of what you're up against while stretching pizza dough by hand.

Stretching Pizza Dough Problems

Keeping the dough from tearing down the middle is the most challenging component of stretching pizza dough.

In other words, pizza dough doesn't have to be so thin that light shines through when held up like a windowpane. The dough can be left thicker to prevent tearing.

Moreover, there is the all-too-common problem of over-kneading the dough if you knead pizza dough for too long; gluten forms, which acts like elastic to restore the dough to its previous form.

You can avoid this by kneading the dough for only 15 to 20 minutes before letting it rest for a considerable amount of time. This prepares the gluten for molding and baking. Check this blog on gluten-free pizza and all.

The baking of the stretched dough may also be uneven, leading to certain parts of the dough being burned before others are done.

To evenly cook a pizza in a conventional oven, you must move it about. In certain newer indoor ovens, tenting the pizza with foil around the edges is necessary to keep it from burning.

To achieve results akin to a real pizza oven, you can alternatively use a pizza stone in your oven or turn the pizza over halfway through cooking.

Rolling Pizza Dough Problems

"Pinching" the dough by rolling to the edge fully deflates it and is a common mistake when rolling. Because of this, the texture may become too thick for comfort.

To prevent pinching, leave a small border of unrolled dough around the pizza's perimeter. Using a rolling pin with handles can help reduce the risk of pinching because you'll have more control over its motion.

Docking the dough is necessary if you want a perfectly smooth crust with no air pockets. Dock the entire crust with a fork or similar device. Also, the crispier the crust, the thinner it should be. Moreover, you may discover that the pizza dough is more difficult to roll out and sticks to surfaces.

Pizza dough is notoriously challenging to deal with as a highly hydrated dough. To prevent this, dust your work area and your implements (rolling pin included) with flour.

When in doubt, a brick pizza oven is your best bet. Use a pizza stone inside your contemporary indoor oven if you don't have access to a traditional outside pizza oven. If you want your pizza crust to be extra crispy, you should preheat the stone and use a pizza peel.

It’s The Dough That Matters Most

It doesn't matter if you roll your pizza dough or stretch it; the dough itself should always be the same. No effort to improve the dough will improve the final product of a poorly made pie.

Which flour is best for the dough, bleached or unbleached?

Homemade doughs, of course, provide you with far more leeway in the final product. However, you can use some excellent premade dough from the shop. If at all feasible, pizza dough should be produced with bread flour because of its protein. In addition, fermentation strengthens the flavor and enhances the texture of the dough.

To ensure your dough stays together, use high-quality oil. Extra virgin olive oil is the standard, and it will give the finished pizza a wonderful, delicate flavor that can be amplified by adding more oil immediately before serving.

Also important is the ability to properly prepare the dough before shaping it. Pizza dough, for instance, may be prepared in enormous quantities. It is given time to rise, divided into smaller balls, and then given more time to rise so that the texture and flavor can develop to their full potential.

Final Words

Some pizza purists insist that hand-stretching the dough is the only method to make pizza. Many home cooks, however, opt to use a rolling pin instead. Either approach can be successful, but you should go into it knowing that you'll make two distinct types of dough.

With a rolling pin, you can make a thin, sturdy dough. On the other hand, dough that has been stretched becomes more dense and airy.

If you use a rolling pin, the dough is more likely to be overworked, ruining your creations. The dough's gluten tightens, making it difficult to stretch the pie. Spread out; it might bounce or spring back. Don't overwork the dough, and consider resting the dough in between rolling sessions.

Our real Italian pizzas from Italy are handmade with all-natural high quality and fresh ingredients in Naples, Italy delivered to you, anywhere in the U.S. Free Shipping Nationwide. Click Here to Buy Now!