Working with Pizza Dough

Working with pizza dough is a sensory experience. I like to have on hand good ingredients—nice olive oil, fresh yeast, beautiful flour. I throw in some Italian dried herbs and the whole house starts to smell like a pizzeria.

Now I do use a bread machine to do the mixing for me. It is fun to knead your dough by hand, but most of the time, I like the convenience of having the machine do it for me. I just load the ingredients into the bread machine and choose the dough setting. A hour and a half later, it is ready. Let it rest a few minutes and you can begin to make your pizza.

Handling the dough is where the real fun begins. You can roll it, spread it, or even toss it. And it is very forgiving. If you get a hole in your pizza dough, it is easy to fix! Even kids can be successful at making their own pizza.

So, how can you work with your dough like a pro? These tips will get you started:

• Mixing pizza dough
  
• Handling the dough
• Tossing pizza dough