Hey Jan,
Today I want to talk about something I think is responsible for more pizza frustration than almost anything else - and it has nothing to do with your technique.
If you've ever gone to stretch your dough and found it just keeps snapping back, tearing, or feeling almost impossible to work with, there's a good chance the issue started a few hours before you ever touched it.
I've often seen home pizza makers pull their dough out of the fridge just when they're ready to bake. But what they don't realize is that cold dough straight from the fridge is tight, stiff, and generally, pretty unpleasant to work with. The gluten is tense, the dough has no give, and no matter how hard you try to stretch it, it's just not going to cooperate.
The fix is almost embarrassingly simple - just pull your dough out 2-3 hours before you plan to bake and let it come up to room temperature. Warm dough is relaxed dough, and relaxed dough stretches completely differently. It's one of those things where once you experience it, you can't believe you ever did it it any other way.
But the benefits don't stop at stretching - cold dough actually hurts your bake too.
You see, when your dough hits your steel, it acts like a heat sink, pulling energy out of it. The colder your dough, the more energy it pulls out, meaning a longer recovery time between pizzas and a less effective bake. A warm dough heats up fast, responds to the oven the way it's supposed to, and gives you a better oven spring - meaning a puffier, more open crust with better texture all the way through.
So next time you're planning a pizza night, just get your dough out a few hours early and let it do its thing. You'll be amazed at the difference!
Charlie
Work With Me