How To Raise A Pizza Dough
Posted on Dec 5, 2010 10:56:41 AM
I used to think I was good at making pizza, but after a miserable failure in October, when my sister was over visiting, and a great success of a pizza night at a friend’s house, where he was cooking, I needed a reality check. My weak point is raising the dough: it just wouldn’t increase in size. Now, the ideal environment for the yeast to work is a temperature of 25-30°C (77-86°F) with 80-90% humidity. In order to achieve this at home and without a bread machine, you’ll find different tips around: put the dough in a bowl and cover it with a warm damp cloth, or put the dough in the oven, leaving it off but with the door closed, or put the dough close to the heater.
To make sure raising would happen I decided to combine all these things together and this it the result:
So this is how to raise a pizza (or bread) dough: in a bowl, warm damp cloth on it, in the oven, door closed, mug full of hot water, and oven TURNED ON to the minimum.
It worked….