Making Pizza Dough Videos
Homemade pizza is one of my family's favorite meals especially now that we are making them from scratch in our outdoor wood-burning oven. I thought making pizza was easy and it is but making it perfect is another thing. One of the most important steps to making great pizza is starting with great pizza dough.
Surprisingly, for a recipe with so few ingredients, you can find numerous versions on the Internet and in your favorite cookbooks. I'm not talking about recipes for making pizza, but just the pizza dough. Then there is the decision to make it by hand or use a mixer if you have one.
Fortunately, I found this incredible video series by Ruth Gresser, owner and chef of Pizzeria Paradiso in Washington, DC that Zagat's says, "The epitome of pizza...this Survey's top pizza honors go to the whimsically decorated Dupont Circle denizen and its 'perfect' pies.
Chef Gresser graduated from culinary school summa cum laude from Madeleine Kammans Classical and Modern French Cooking School and has been a guest chef at Alice Waters' Chez Panisse. She has been written about in the Washington Post and The Washington Business Journal and is a member of Les Dames d'Escoffier.
I had a question about shaping the dough into a pie so I emailed Chef Gresser and she was kind enough to reply. We talked about a future Novice2Pro interview and some more pizza help so I can finally make a great pizza myself. Stay tuned for more with Ruth Gresser and enjoy these first video's about making pizza dough. After you make the dough, check out these videos on How to Shape the Dough for the Second Rise and How to Shape the Dough into Pizza by Hand, With a Rolling Pin and by Tossing It Up In the Air.
How to Make the Pizza Dough By Hand - Part 1
How to Make the Pizza Dough By Hand - Part 2
What If You Want to Use A Mixer?
In this video, Ruth shows us how to make a pizza dough with a mixer so you don't have to knead the dough for by hand. Ruth uses whole wheat flour to make whole wheat dough but the same process works for white flour.
Questions & Comments from You
Grace A Rizzotto
Comment: Hi, I make pizza for a living , I have been told that salt kills yeast., I use salt & sugar with the dry yeast, eggs, oil and water, which is about 135-140 degrees. Was I misinformed , is it a combination of elements or has the restaurant just been lucky for the past 26 years ? Just curious. Thanks....
RG Response - It's a matter of balance. Salt does retard yeast growth, and in concentrations that are too high, it can indeed kill the yeast. In judicious amounts, salt is what brings out the flavor in the bread and controls yeast growth so that the resulting crumb is nice and even. If you ever make a dough without salt, you'll notice a lot more, and faster, rise and after baking, you'll see large, irregular holes in the bread where the yeast just got carried away. So, it's not that the restaurant has been lucky, it's just that their pizza dough recipe is balanced so the yeast can do their thing while the salt keeps them in check.
