Geoff;
Believe it or not, that is a tough question. My knee jerk reaction is to say; Learn how to open a dough piece into a dough skin, then practice, practice, practice, get more dough and practice some more. In our need to train individuals, who are what I like to call “toss challanged” I’ve found that if I use a sheeter (dough roller) to open the dough up to about 2/3 of the desired size, I can then finish opening it by hand much more easily, and quickly too, I might add, to the full diameter. The finished dough skin, with very little practice, will have a uniform thickness across the entire bottom, and a light, raised edge on the baked crust. The internal cell structure of the baked crust, will be for all practical purposes, the same as it would have been if the dough was opened entirely by hand. I’ve trained a lot of people in this technique, and for the most part, it only takes about 15-minutes of practice before they begin exhibiting a level of proficiency. As a side benefit, many have reported back to me that after a short time using this process, they began opening the dough entirely by hand. This procedure seems to give a person time to develop their dough handling skills, and then one day the question pops into their mind: “Gee I wonder if I can open the entire dough piece by hand?” Using their well honed skills, and a little practice, the answer is generally “yes”. Any of the students that have attended our Practical Pizza Production class over the past few years have been exposed to this forming technique during the hands-on lab sessions. You might give it a try to see if it will work for you too. You don’t need a sheeter/dough roller to get started, a good, old fashion rolling pin will work to get you started.
Tom Lehmann/ The Dough Doctor
