Pizza – How to Salvage a Topped Pizza That Sticks to the Peel

How to throw dough, a basic step by step guide.

1. Make sure you have a dough that can stand up to being airborne. This means that you need a high gluten dough. You can throw wetter doughs as you get more experienced but they require much more precise hand placement and are much less forgiving.

2. Make sure your dough is fully risen with out being "blown". It should be elastic and soft to the touch.

3. Coat dough in flour. This step is necessary to allow free spinning on your hands and to get good, clean releases.

4. Create crust. You can use the method that daniel describes, you can use the Papa John's fold and tuck method, you can do it like this video, it doesn't matter as long as you end up with a piece of dough that is flat over the interior with a ridge going around the outside.

5. You should be comfortable with in-air hand stretching before you get to the actual throwing. This is when you place the dough on the backs of your hands, support it with your knuckles and stretch it out. This position is a great way to start a basic toss that won't rip your dough as you will be catching with the backs of your hands and not your fingers. You want to release the dough by having your right hand provide upward thrust as your left hand provides spin. This will provide a straight up toss that is very easy to catch.

6. The way to do the more advanced throws is learn to release from your finger tips. This involves having your fingers rest along the ridge that we made in step four. You can check out a quick tutorial starting at 2:17 on this video. Feel free to ignore the rest of it, but it was the best explanation I found online. Basically, you want the dough to hang in such a way as to allow you to impart spin and momentum with just one hand, while other is occasionally used as a stabilizer. This allows tricks like the roll and the through the legs and all the others.

Important tips that will help you be successful at learning this skill.

Cold dough is more elastic than warm dough. That means its terrible for pizza but great for practicing. It also resists puncture a little better, so less holes.

A damp kitchen towel has about the same aerodynamics as a piece of dough. It's what I used to train the guys at my restaurant on for extra practice, and it's way cheaper than one of those rubber doughs.

The dough should always be spinning in the air. If it's not, you aren't doing it right.

Throwing dough can result in a very thin middle. You want to make sure that you are stretching evenly and keeping an eye on that if you intend to use the dough for it's actual purpose of delicious pizza.

Practice, Practice! Throwing dough is a physical skill and you have to train your muscles a little to be good at it. It can be a little frustrating at first but stick with it, it's a lot of fun. If you have any additional concerns leave a comment and I'll do my best answer them.

My targets for the final dough:

1. when I stretch it over my fist, once it has got to the size where it covers my whole fist, it starts to stretch under its own weight
2. if the inside of the dough is exposed it will stick to hands/surface
3. need to use semolina/cornmeal to transfer the pizza around
4. contains lots of visible bubbles before stretching, with the dough having enough integrity to stretch the bubbles without losing them.
5. can stretch it to be translucent without tearing too much (preferably without tearing at all)

What I look for at different by stages:

I have been making a lot of pizza dough over the last year, experimenting with different amounts of water and kneading techniques. In order to make a very thin base, (on you can stretch so it is translucent) but can still transfer into the oven I make a very wet (60% hydration) dough and either:

1. No-Knead approach: use small amounts of yeast and salt. Just leave the dough for approx 18 hours. Then put in the fridge, I find it is best after 2 days in the fridge. Because the dough is cold you can easily handle it, although you might need to let it warm up a bit before you can do anything with it.

   What I am aiming for is that when I stretch it over my fist, once it has got to the size where it covers my whole fist, it starts to stretch under its own weight.

   I expect to see a lot of bubbles, up to 0.5cm in diameter but most smaller, in the dough, but not to be able to pour it out. I will have to scrape it out of the bowl using a wet spatula. and will have to use a light dusting of flour (not too much) to stop it sticking to the surface or my hands. I sometimes let it rise again after shaping (need to at least let it relax for a few minutes) and usually have to add more flour to my hands to do the stretch. Try to use as little extra flour as you can. I usually have to only dust the dough once and lightly before stretching it. If you have to use any more it might be too wet or not have enough gluten development.

2. Hand Knead approach: using more yeast and salt. When I first turn the dough out to knead I do not expect to be able to handle it, it is to sticky and runny. I use tools to fold it a few times. You will probably need some flour to do this, but try not to use too much. After several folds the dough comes together enough for me to lightly cover it in flour I "roll knead" - which is rolling and stretching it, but not bringing the wet inside to the surface. If you start to fold or tear the dough it will stick to your hands and the surface, if that happens you have to put more flour on which will reduce the hydration of your dough so avoid it. You will have to work it for quite a while. Try to get your body weight applied to the dough as your roll it.

   What I am aiming for is a dough which you can pick up without your fingers just going into it and that springs back when you deform it; but if you tear it or open it up the inside will immediately stick to your hands and the surface. When I get this I stop kneading.

I usually rise it for 80 mins but it depends on the temperature. After this rise, I will divide it and shape it into balls. I expect to not be able to easily rip the dough apart due to its wetness. It should contain quite a bit of air, and some largeish bubbles which I try not to knock back too much.

I have to use a wet spatula to divide it, and then use a small amount of flour on the outside to form a smooth surfaced ball. Then I cover it and rise it again for 20mins. The outside will be smooth with some bubbles visible and due to the flour dry enough to handle. The inside will be too wet to handle without adding more flour.

After this second rise I put a bit of flour on my hands and stretch it over my fist, it should behave pretty much the same as the no-knead version at this stage.