Preparing Pizza: Processes, Dough, and Shaping

Welcome to this session dedicated to the art of baking that we all love so much. Today, I want to take you into my ideal workshop to discuss that magical journey that transforms a few simple ingredients into a masterpiece of crispiness and flavor. Making pizza is not just about following a recipe scribbled on a piece of paper; it is a true act of love that requires patience, rationality, and a great desire to learn from one’s mistakes.

Choosing the Flour: Starting Point

It all starts in your head before it even gets to your hands. The first major obstacle that many encounter is the choice of flour. We are bombarded with advertisements for organic stone-milled flours made from ancient grains sourced from remote corners of the world, but if you are just starting out or if you want a guaranteed result without going crazy, don’t be afraid to use a good strong flour like Manitoba. Often, you hear that strong flour is bad or less digestible, but these are just unfounded rumors.

Especially if you want to prepare a nice thick and fluffy pizza, you need a flour with muscle: a high protein content, around 13 to 14 grams. A strong flour is like a well-trained athlete, capable of absorbing a lot of water and holding the gases of fermentation without giving in. If you use weak flour and try to make a very hydrated dough, you will end up with a sticky mess. So, for your first attempts, play it safe.

The Dough: The Key is Consistency

The heart of the process requires consistency. If every time you knead, you change the brand of flour, type of yeast, resting times, and water temperature, you will never understand why one time it turns out well and the next time it’s a disaster. Act like little scientists in the kitchen: change only one thing at a time.

Start with a direct method, the most honest and transparent: water, salt, flour, and yeast. Speaking of sourdough, which is so fashionable: it is a wonderful thing, a poetry that tastes ancient, but it is also a huge complication. Managing it correctly requires almost total dedication, and if it is not in perfect shape, it risks giving you a sour product or one that doesn’t rise well. For a classic round pizza, yeast is perfect, nothing else is needed.

When you start mixing the ingredients, do it gently. There’s no need to torture the dough for hours. If you are working by hand or with a small home mixer, the important thing is not to overheat the mass. Excessive heat wrecks the gluten structure that is forming. If you feel that the dough is getting too hot, stop and let it rest for a few minutes. Once the mass is nice and smooth, let it rest covered: this is where the magic of gluten relaxation happens.

Shaping: The Most Satisfying Moment

After the first rise comes one of the most beautiful moments of the process: shaping. This word