Pizza is one of the most versatile (and, of course, tastiest) dishes out there. And if you consider yourself to be a big pizza fan, you may even want to try investing in an outdoor pizza oven, pulling out a bag of 00 flour, and trying to make your own pizza at home. As someone who worked professionally in a pizzeria and who loves to experiment with different breads and doughs of all kinds, let me be frank about something: Homemade pizza is harder to make than it looks.
One of the most difficult and stress-inducing parts of making homemade pizza is getting the dough perfectly stretched to fit to your peel or baking tray. While the mixing and kneading process may seem relatively straightforward, it’s super common to have a dough that just doesn’t want to stretch out. And once it does loosen up, you may find that it wants to resort back to its ball shape within seconds. It can certainly be frustrating to not have your dough stretch, but all hope is not lost. Here are some of the reasons why your pizza dough may not be stretching, and what you can do about it.
1. Your dough is too cold
Have you ever bought frozen pizza dough from the grocery store? This item can certainly be a reliable alternative to having to whip up, rest, and knead your dough. Essentially, all you need to do is buy the dough, plop it on the counter, and shape it into your desired pizza base.
One of the biggest mistakes that people make with store-bought pizza dough is not letting it sit out at room temperature for long enough before they start working with it. When the dough is cold (or, depending on the brand you buy, possibly frozen) it’s less likely to stretch properly. Not only is room temperature dough easier to work with, but it’s also less likely to tear than a super cold dough. This is one tip that really only applies to store-bought dough, as you’re likely already resting your homemade pizza dough at room temperature.
2. The dough has been overworked
Pizza dough, and dough in general, tends to be a fickle beast. While some degree of kneading and stretching is important, too much could potentially ruin your dough. You’ll be able to tell that your dough is overworked if you try to handle it and stretch it, but just find that it snaps back into its original state.
Overworking can occur at many different stages of the dough development process, but it will ultimately lead to a dough that’s very difficult to shape. When you’re mixing the dough in a stand mixer, or kneading it together with your hands, you want to aggravate it enough so that the flour can become hydrated and can readily hold onto those air bubbles released during fermentation. It’s these air bubbles that gives the dough its soft texture and slight rise. If you let it mix too much in your stand mixer, the gluten proteins will become overworked and won’t be as extensible when you go to shape it later on. You also may be inadvertently overworking your dough when you go to shape it into a ball, as the constant rolling and reshaping could be activating that gluten a little too much.
Unfortunately, it’s really hard to come back from a dough that’s been grossly overworked. Though you can give the dough a little more time to rest in between kneading and shaping, it’s unlikely that your dough will automatically revert back to its non-overworked state. Hindsight is 20/20, so just be sure to avoid mixing your homemade dough more than you have to in order to prevent this problem from happening in the first place.
3. There’s something off with your dough’s hydration
Another place that I would suggest that people look at when they’re wondering why their pizza dough isn’t stretching is its composition. Pizza dough, like all types of dough, is a combination of a few very simple ingredients: water, flour, salt, and yeast. But, it’s the proportions of these ingredients, as well as the technique and timing, that set something like a pizza dough apart from a boule.
When making any dough, it’s super, super important to abide by the proper ratios outlined in the recipe. Adding too much flour will result in a dough that doesn’t stretch as easily as one that is properly hydrated. To avoid this from happening, I would highly recommend that any person looking to make their own pizza dough invest in a scale. The tool will give you super accurate measurements and allow you to follow your recipe as closely as possible to avoid shifting the proportions needed for a successful and extensible dough.
Though, you also need to look at other places where more flour is being added to your dough. For one, if you are kneading your dough in flour to prevent sticking, you may be picking up more of it than you initially intended on, in turn messing up the hydration balance. Instead, stretch it on semolina (it’s what we used in the pizzeria), since it will not soak up into your dough.
4. You used a rolling pin
If you walk into the back of house of a pizzeria, you will never see a rolling pin anywhere. And if you do see a rolling pin, that’s your sign to find a different pizzeria to order from.
Rolling pins come in handy for things like pie crust. They will help make the dough super thin, which is what you’re after for this type of pastry. You’re not worried about pushing all of the air out with a pie crust. In the case with a pizza dough though, if you grab a rolling pin and start pushing, you will definitely push all of the air out of the dough and cause it to be super flat, stodgy, and potentially even overworked. Instead of rolling out your pizza dough with a pin, you’ll want to use your fingers and gently push out the dough so that you don’t deflate it entirely.
5. You didn’t knead it enough
It’s just as easy to overwork your dough as it is to underwork it. And if you’re paranoid about your dough becoming overworked, you may also be inclined to shut off your stand mixer before it has had a chance to work its magic. However, this could lead to issues with your dough not stretching, too. Though, an underworked dough will not be as resistant to stretching as one that’s overworked. Rather, you’ll be left with a dough that has minimal gluten formation and doesn’t look or feel quite like pizza dough. It may be sticky and hard to handle, too, due to the uneven hydration. This composition will make it difficult to stretch evenly, or you may notice that some parts of the crust stretch easier than others. Undermixing also causes issues with the consistency of the pizza crust; it may be short, dense, and almost crumbly.
You’ll want to make sure that you’re mixing your dough enough so that it’s springy and all of the ingredients are well-incorporated. Abide by the instructions on your recipe and mix your dough until a thin film forms on the top of it. There should be no clumps of flour or wet spots in your finished dough.
6. The dough hasn’t been adequately rested
One of the most likely reasons for why a dough won’t stretch is related to the amount of time it’s given to rest. The more time that your dough has to sit and relax, the more time there is for it to hydrate and for the gluten to trap those air bubbles. Since strong gluten networks are what makes your dough extensible, you’re going to need to prioritize its rest. A dough that has not had enough time to rest will want to shrink back into its original shape rather than stretch out.
Many recipes will call for pizza dough to be rested overnight before it’s kneaded and worked with. When I make pizza dough, this is usually my go-to, as I find that resting the dough for this long period makes it super easy to work with, and the slow fermentation time really improves the flavor. That being said, you can actually overproof your dough by resting it too long. If there are large air bubbles or your dough won’t hold its shape, it’s a sign that you will need to punch out the air, reform the dough into balls again, and try resting it again.
If you’re still finding your dough difficult to work with (even after you abided by your recipe to a T), or if you think you may have overworked it, walk away from your dough for a little bit (anywhere from 15 minutes to a half-hour) to give the gluten a chance to rest and slack before you try working it again.
7. The wrong kind of flour was added
Flour makes up the base of your pizza dough, so you’re going to want to make sure you select the “right type” — or at least, have an idea of how your flour choice will alter the overall texture and consistency of your dough. One of the most common types you’ll see listed on recipes is, of course, 00 flour. This type of flour is very finely ground and is often used for Neapolitan-style pies because (if it’s cooked right) it will contribute to its characteristic lepoarding. The protein of this flour is not super high; you may find brands that have around 11.5% to 12% gluten. Although the gluten content isn’t really of note, the extensibility of it is – 00 flour is really easy to stretch, which is why I like to use it in my pizza dough.
However, you will also have people that are in the bread flour camp when it comes to this recipe. Bread flour contains more gluten, which is helpful for trapping air bubbles. It makes for a crust that is very lofty (and breadlike). However, if you use bread flour in your recipe, you should expect that the dough will have more of a tendency to spring back when you stretch it than a pizza dough made with a lower-gluten flour. There isn’t much you can do to “fix” this, as it’s just a natural tendency of a high-gluten flour. Depending on your confidence in stretching dough, you may want to opt for an 00 flour first before you start trying recipes made with bread flour. Or, you can use a mix of the two flours to get the best of both worlds.
8. You pulled the dough rather than pushed it
Getting the mechanics down of stretching dough can be tough, especially for a beginner. While there aren’t any “right” ways to stretch pizza dough, there are ways that I would classify as being “wrong.” Pulling the dough into the direction you want it to go is not ideal, as it will want to revert back into its original shape. However, if you use a push method, or let gravity do the work for you, you will have a far easier time stretching your dough into the shape that you want.
I think about the process of working a pizza dough like loosening a new hair tie. If you pull one side of the band, it will snap back into place rather than “stretching.” But, if you progressively stretch the tie from the inside out with your hand (or with your hair), you will find that it eventually loosens. Luckily, stretching dough is a little less time consuming than stretching a hair tie.
My go-to method for shaping dough is to first plop it on the counter and flatten it into a disc by pushing your fingertips from the inside out. Then, when it comes time to actually stretch the dough, pick it up off the counter, lay it over your hands, and use gravity and let your knuckles do the work. Once you stretch and pull out an edge, rotate it and let gravity pull the center of the dough downwards.
9. You didn’t shape it before you rested it
I’ll admit that I had never heard of this concept before I was scrolling through King Arthur’s website and found it one day. Essentially, what you’ll want to do here is to actually shape your dough before it has its first rise. Once your dough has been kneaded and rested just enough so that it’s well-hydrated (even 15 to 20 minutes is acceptable), then you’re going to want to go right into shaping it before you let it rise for its bulk fermentation. From there, it can go straight into the oven to bake.
This method is an ingenious way to expedite the pizza-making process (and it’s one that I can verify actually works). You don’t have to worry about over-kneading or knocking the air bubbles out because you can just shape it and bake it — there’s no mixing or handling in-between required. While it’s not the most conventional process (and it requires that you have a sufficient amount of space to let your dough rounds rest), it will still yield a beginner-friendly dough that requires very little hands-on work to shape.
10. You neglected a dough conditioner
C’mon dough, you just need to relax! Unfortunately, with some pizza doughs, that’s something that is much easier said than done. Luckily, there are some additives that you can add to your dough to help encourage it to stretch a little bit more. You can try King Arthur’s dough improver, which is comprised of non-fat milk and other additives. You’ll just need to add a scant amount to your recipe with the rest of your dry ingredients to help encourage your dough to stretch more easily. Though, it is not suitable for vegans or folks with milk allergies.
You could also experiment with other dough conditioners, including PZ-44, since they will help encourage your dough to stretch. Though, this product is typically only really used for food service applications, rather than at-home use. Another option would be to use fats, like oil, to help condition your dough and make it easier to work with. But, fats may alter the chemistry and mouthfeel of the dough, so it may not be the best choice for all at-home pizza makers.
11. You didn’t use a preferment
One pizza dough addition that I will stand by is a preferment. A preferment is essentially a pared-down version of a sourdough starter. This combination of flour, yeast, and water needs to sit for about 12 hours before it can be added into the dry ingredients. When you let this mixture sit, you’ll give it time to develop flavors before it’s added to the dry ingredients. I find that breads that are made with preferments have that sourdough-esque flavor to them, though it’s not as strong as a starter that’s been cultivated for months and months.
Besides a better flavor, one of the benefits of using a preferment in your dough will be that it’s easier to work with and stretch. For example, a type of liquid preferment called a poolish has a ton of enzymatic activity going on. The enzymes break down and soften the gluten in the flour, in turn making the dough easier to stretch than one that does not contain a poolish.
12. The dough dried out
Have you ever made a bread or pizza dough and walked away, only to come back and notice that a dry coating has formed on the top of it? While it might not seem like a big deal, letting your dough form this exterior skin may cause issues with shaping and stretching. You’ll notice unsightly dry cracks on the outside of your dough when you work with it, and you may even see it split when you try to stretch it.
In hindsight, you should always make sure to cover your dough with a layer of plastic wrap or keep it in an airtight container while it’s resting. If you don’t realize that you left your dough uncovered until too late, you can always try to lightly (and I do mean lightly) wet your dough, reshape it into balls and then let it rest for another half-an-hour or so to let it rehydrate. However, this is one pizza problem that’s easier to prevent than it is to fix.
