Tips on dough?

[Wayne]

I just got my 14 inch removable bottom deep dish pan in last week and yesterday I followed the pizzera uno chicago deep dish recipe on the page.  It came out ok and tested fine (which by my standards is just "acceptable") but when I put the fough in the pan I couldnt get it to stay pressed up along the edges very well.  I finally got it to somewhat stay but it just wouldnt cooperate completely and wanted to keep shrinking back down, so basically the toppings were sitting more "on" the dough than "in" the dough.  So I was wondering if anyone has any tips I coudl use next time to make the dough cooperate more and stay pressed up along the edges (kind of like a pie crust) as opposed to its usual shrinking habit.

By the way when I made the dough I followed the recipe but oen thing I did different.  I don't own a stand mixer yet so I had to do it by hand.  Could I have maybe misjudged and under-compensated, therefore underbeating and kneading the dough?

[itsinthesauce]

How long did you let the dough rise? I've had this happen when I didn't use enough dough.

[Wayne]

"Remove dough and place on a clean countertop. Cover with a very large metal bowl and allow to rise until double in bulk. Punch down and allow to rise again. Punch down a second time and you are ready to make pizza!"

This si the exact method form the recipe.  As you can see it doesn't give a time, it just makes you eyeball it, which I do anyway, but this is exactly what I did.

[buzz]

You have to knead the dough until it comes together (usually 5-8 minutes). Jab it with your finger--if the hole fills back in pretty quickly, then it's ready.

if your dough is springing back too much, let it rest 5-10 minutes to let the gluten relax. That should take care of the problem.

[hkigram]

I've got a question. I made the Uno's dough on the site and it tasted great except the grit of the corn meal. I've made a lot of dough, years ago, but have no experiece using corn meal. I cna't remember Uno's crust being that grainy. Will corn flour work which is a finer mill?
Any ideas?

[itsinthesauce]

you've got to let it rise slowly, in the frig, 12 hours, at least, otherwise it gets that grainy taste.

[DKM]

"Remove dough and place on a clean countertop. Cover with a very large metal bowl and allow to rise until double in bulk. Punch down and allow to rise again. Punch down a second time and you are ready to make pizza!"

This si the exact method form the recipe.  As you can see it doesn't give a time, it just makes you eyeball it, which I do anyway, but this is exactly what I did.

Sounds like your dough wasn't relaxed enough.  I never punch down the dough before I put it in the pan.  I simply drop it from the bowl into the pan then spread it out.  If you have that problem when you are trying to form it in the pan simply cover the pan with something (towel, plastic wrap, plate) and let it sit for 15 minutes then come back and try again.

DKM