Do I really need to add sugar? Making my own pizza?

you need a little something sugary to get the yeast going faster - honey works just as well as white sugar, if you have that. A teaspoon or two is all it takes. And yes, it will rise without sugar because the flour can provide the same energy to the yeast, it just takes longer and at least in my experience, never gets quite as fluffy.

And nope, don't use the self rising flour with a yeast bread recipe - white whole wheat flour is great stuff, or you could use a regular unbleached white.

It's possible I bake too much lol. One of my favorite pastimes. If you're not a fan of baking, Trader Joe's sells fresh bagged pizza dough that you just have to pat out in a pan and bake - whole wheat too. Good stuff.

read a recipe recently haven't tried it yet but it makes sense. Flour and greek yogurt will look for it and be back

JanetYellen wrote: »

Thanks everyone. You won't believe this, but I went to my neighbor.
She had something called pizza yeast packet, and some sugar. I'm all set. I am sorry. I should have done that first. I just realized I don't have a rolling pin....

I never roll pizza. You don't want it uniform thickness, you want a thicker bit for the crust.

I stretch my pizza dough, which is how pizza places do it too. Tossing is really just a fancy way to stretch.

WinoGelato wrote: »

JanetYellen wrote: »

I will have pizza tonight. I will.

Dominos. Problem solved...

But this way she burns off all the calories making the pizza! I think it's a brilliant plan

As far as I have heard, baking is like doing chemistry experiments. If you don't follow the recipe exactly, don't expect it to turn out well. However, looking for an alternate recipe is an option.

Yes, you need sugar. No, self-rising flour is not a good idea. It won't be harmful, but All Purpose or bread flour are far better choices if you want it to taste good and both can be mixed with whole wheat flour, if you like. Making crust at home in a food processor is fast, easy, and lets you control how much olive oil and sugar you add. If you are really opposed to making your own, Trader Joe's is known for their pizza dough, so a good alternative. However, you can also make a double batch yourself and keep some in the fridge until you need it.

Now I want pizza

sbrooks0387 wrote: »

thin crust recipe i use:

1/2 cup warm water
1/2 tsp of active dry yeast

combine, let sit 10 mins somewhere warm

add:
1 tbs olive oil
1/2 cup white flour
1/2 cup wheat flour (could prob do all wheat, but would have to increase the water some, i think)

stir, then kneed on a floured surface for 3 mins
let set for 10 mins in a warm place

then spread out on your pizza pan, poke liberally with a fork, bake at 500 for 5 mins, top as desired bake 8-10 mins longer.

i don't like a lot of crust, so this is a thin more crunch crust.

When substituting all whole wheat flour for white, it's usually necessary to knead longer, also (to develop the gluten, as there's less gluten in whole wheat flour). Kneading twice as long is a rule of thumb, if you don't know how the dough is supposed to feel.

Or you can use nearly all whole wheat, and substitute 1-2 tablespoons of powdered gluten (aka vital wheat gluten, instant gluten, pure gluten flour) for 1-2 tablespoons of the whole wheat flour in each cupful the recipe requires. Health food stores sometimes have the gluten in bulk so you don't have to buy a bunch. Increases the protein a bit, too.

kdav88 wrote: »

It isn't so much about the texture (flours can be different grinds even within the same 'type'). Bread flour has more protein, and therefore will produce more gluten able to hold more carbon dioxide (given off by the yeast), giving you that coveted bread/pizza crust chew and crumb (baker's speak for the air bubbles in your bread).

That said, all purpose flour can make a damn good pizza crust, so if you aren't baking bread, I wouldn't worry about that. As someone mentioned above, I never buy self-rising flour because I can easily make it myself if needed.

Given that you're likely not going to be giving your pizza dough a long time to rise, I suggest adding that little bit of sugar (or honey, or molasses, or maple syrup, etc.) to feed the yeast and generate the carbon dioxide faster, which creates the bubbles in the dough. Mmmm what a great texture.

For a great, really simple pizza dough recipe, try this: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/recipes/pizza It includes a few suggestions on ways to tweak the ingredients to get your desired effect, and the dough freezes really well for you to have dough on hand for a later date.

Don't worry about the rolling pin. As others have said, just stretch it gently til it's the desired thickness. The dough is pretty hardy stuff. Bon appetite!

this.

Just a few things to add for those who don't deal in dough very often....
1. Bread, AP, and Cake flours all differ by the amount of protein inside. However, this isn't evident on most labels due to rounding allowed by the government (US. Don't know about other country food labels).
2. Gluten is formed when you mix flour with water. When you knead the dough, you are actually developing long sheets of glutten. We will come back to these long strands of protein in a second.
3. Yeast is a living organism. It eats sugar* and passes off gas as waste. Yes, basically it farts. The yeast farts are caught and held by long strands of protein...see point 2 (told you we would get back to it). This is what gives you the really nice texture. But....
4. After the first knead, you punch down the dough. Then you form the dough and often let it rise again (Second rise depends on what you are making; pizza dough it isn't needed for thin crust but useful for thick). Why do it again? The first rising is about developing flavor. As it turns out, gluten by itself is kinda bland and yeast farts make it taste rather good (as does that little pinch of salt in the recipe).
5. And since I am babbling (yes, I need a life) do you know why you rest dough between punch down and shaping? Yup, because those gluten strands way back from step 2 need to relax. If you don't rest your dough, it can be hard to shape even if you are just going to smash it out with a rolling pin. Let it rest.
6. You will get some oven spring or rise the first few moments in the oven. In fact, it won't stop rising until the yeast dies which is somewhere around 120ish degrees if I recall correctly.
7. Self rising flour - this is a flour with leaven-er already added along with some salt. 'Cept the leavening agent is Baking Powder, not yeast. Baking Powder is a chemical leavner that activates with moisture. Baking Powder is a rather quick gas release which is to say it shoots its load a bit to fast to make satisfying bread rise and it certainly isn't near as yummily as yeast farts.

sorry for my long winded additions. I'm nerdy that way.

*as others pointed out, you don't need the sugar but this does speed up the initial fermentation. If you have time to wait, you don't need the sugar. That said, a tsp of sugar across an entire pizza crust is negligible to you.