Nervous about making dough - good vid?

[marnisl]

Hey guys.

About to attempt my first pizza from scratch and am really nervous about my abilities to pull off the dough. Obviously practice makes perfect but I want to at least be in the right ballpark technique-wise so I know what to shoot far. I'll be using Chris Bianco's simple Pizza Dough recipe  ( http://www.marthastewart.com/344334/chris-biancos-pizza-dough ) and while I think I have the gist of how to knead and shape it, a visual would be nice. 

Which specific vid would you recommend that clearly shows expert hands at work?

Thanks!

[buceriasdon]

Hi marnisl, There are several You Tube vids on hand kneading, varying only slightly. Most of us use some variation that we have found to work best for us, but any of them will work fine. I crunched some numbers for that recipe and came up with a minimum hydration of 66% to 71%, depending on how it is measured, coupled with the called out lower protein all purpose flour will yield a very wet sticky dough, requiring quite a bit of bench flour added while kneading to get a working dough ball. Being generous, let's say the flour weighs 24 ounces, your water weighs 16 ounces. 16 divided by 24 equals .66 or 66%. Personally I can't recommend this high water ratio recipe for a beginner. 58% to 60% water would be better starting out. That's just my opinion. I would rather you try something like Peter's Papa John's American style recipe. It is a well proven preformer for novices. http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,6758.0.html  Reply number 2. It does require the use of a kitchen scale, but they are not costly and are a great aid to dough making for beginners.
Don

[Pete-zza]

marnisl,

I, too, think that the recipe you decided to try is overly ambitious for your very first pizza, for the same reason Don mentioned--a high hydration value. However, if you have had substantial experience making high-hydration bread doughs, that would definitely help and be a big plus. If you decide to proceed, here is a pretty good video that shows the stretch and fold method:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kN1fpqlSleE&amp;feature=BFa&amp;list=PL97C7C8368BDFF1A2&amp;lf=results_video" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kN1fpqlSleE&amp;feature=BFa&amp;list=PL97C7C8368BDFF1A2&amp;lf=results_video</a>

. Your dough might not be as highly hydrated as the one in the video, so that should help also.

Peter

[Pizzamaster]

No reason to be nervous. It's just flour, water and yeast. If you screw up throw it away and start over.

[moose13]

this is a pretty good one

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjYqw1CLZsA" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjYqw1CLZsA</a>

[censored]

This video helped me a lot:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbkfDqA8yKg&amp;list=UUuZZRNxfmcWrX6nQ17p0Gqg&amp;index=5&amp;feature=plcp" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbkfDqA8yKg&amp;list=UUuZZRNxfmcWrX6nQ17p0Gqg&amp;index=5&amp;feature=plcp</a>

Don't let the shaping intimidate you enough not to give it a try. If all else fails you can always roll it out with a pin. Not the preferred way to do it, but at least it will get you something you can put in the oven. If you want to try with something very easy and forgiving, this one is great: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/jays-signature-pizza-crust/. It won't give you any kind of artisan crust, it is more of bread you can put pizza toppings on, but before I found this site, that is what I made and everyone still loved it. If you have a day or two to make the dough, this one is pretty good too, but I found I had to add a little extra water to it, YMMV: http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/brick-oven-pizza-recipe#fragement-2/. Good luck, this site is a wealth of knowledge, just poke around and learn as much as you can.