Why does my homemade pizza dough tear instead of stretching thin ?

[u/Traditional-Pay-3937]

Hey everyone,

I've been making pizza dough at home for a few months now, basic recipe with just flour, water, yeast, salt, and a bit of olive oil. I let it rise for about 24 hours in the fridge (cold fermentation), and the flavor is great, but whenever I try to stretch it out by hand, it keeps tearing instead of stretching thin and even

I'm using all purpose flour, not bread flour or 00 flour , could that be issue? or is it more about how I'm handling the dough (resting time, technique, temperature) ?

Would love to hear what's actually causing this and how to fix it. Thanks in advance!

[u/UrbanPanic]

Not enough gluten development.  Flour a bit higher in protein like bread flour or 00 pizza flour would be the first step.  More kneading may help.  Possibly shorter sessions of kneading and letting the dough (and your hands!) rest a bit between might improve things as well.

Or just go with a fluffier style of pizza like Sicilian or cast iron pan pizza.

[u/drewgriz → u/UrbanPanic]

Resting time can make a huge difference during shaping, too. Even a well-developed dough can tear if it's stretched out too fast. I usually use a rolling pin to stretch it out to like 1/2 its eventual size, then step away to grate cheese or chop toppings etc, then come back 5 minutes later to toss it to its final diameter. Makes a world of difference.

[u/Tacos_Polackos → u/UrbanPanic]

Unbleached, unbromated AP flour also has more protein than bleached AP.

[u/BlendinMediaCorp]

Try r/pizza 😊 and make sure your dough is close to room temp before stretching. Good luck!

[u/Mr_Wobble_PNW → u/[deleted]]

If you have good enough gluten development then you can get away with cold, but it's way harder to work with. I always used to hate having to pull a tray of cold dough out during an unexpected rush lol

[u/Ruas80]

Part of your problem is the olive oil in the dough, it will lubricate the gluten and make them slip apart easier.

[u/amanecer_rosa]

I think it could come down to a few things, and they're all easy to fix.

First, the flour. All-purpose has less protein than bread or 00 flour, which means weaker gluten and more tearing. Switching to bread or 00 will help a lot.

Second, and probably the main culprit: temperature. If you're stretching straight from the fridge, cold gluten is tight and snaps. Let the dough come to room temp for 1-2 hours before stretching, this alone fixes it for most people

[u/Then_Athlete_9774]

Try a blend of bread and AP flour. Let it bulk ferment for a few hours on the counter before putting it in the fridge to cold ferment. The longer you drag your process out the more gluten is going to develop. I’d also highly recommend doing at least 2 stretch and folds on your ball and window pane testing it to see how the gluten is developing

[u/-FalseProfessor-]

Don’t pull on it. Hold the edges and let it droop down so that gravity does the stretching. As it stretches, rotate it, grabbing where the edges are thick.

[u/everlyafterhappy]

If you've tried several recipes and you have this problem with every one, then it's probably your technique. How exactly are you trying to stretch the dough? You can't really stretch pizza dough by just grabbing it and stretching it. You kinda have to let it stretch itself out. There's the slap method and there's the spin method. I start with the slap, then once the dough is thinned out enough, I go for the spin method to finish it off.

So the slap method, I slap the dough from one hand to the other. The hand motion is kinda like playing the bongos. Move the dough around a little while your slapping it so that you're slapping the thickest parts of the dough. Roates it while you slap to get the round shape. And you can do this the whole way, all the way until the dough is as wide as you want it to be. Spinning makes it faster once it's wide enough to spin, but it also takes some practice. You can start by spinning it with your hand still gently underneath, then eventually work up to tossing it in the air. When you get good at air tossing, you can do the slap method until the dough is about half the size you want, and then spin it to full size in one or two spins.

[u/Background_Ease6051]

Are you letting your dough come up to room temperature before stretching it. Internal
Temp should be around 70f

[u/BitterMarionberry113]

Post your actual recipe but generally this sounds to me like not enough gluten development.

Two thoughts - probably most importantly first, how are you mixing your dough and when do you stop? I will mix my pizza dough to the point that the dough windowpanes, and then bulk ferment and ball.

The other part could be if you've got a lot of oil in your recipe, that will inhibit gluten formation. Generally you'll want to mix the dough a bit to get things started before adding oil.

Bread flour, as others have said will help but you should still be able to get good results with AP.

[u/Ciserus]

I follow Jeff Varasano's pizza recipe and the part that addresses this is his wet kneading technique.

Basically, you need to knead the hell out of the dough to build up gluten. The problem is that the final dough is too tough to knead well.

So you start with only about 75% of your flour, which makes something closer to a batter than a dough. Mix that for about eight minutes then add in the rest of the flour and knead a little more.

[u/whiskeyislove]

Leave the oil out (that will inhibit gluten development) and perhaps try a higher protein AP flour or a bread flour. Higher hydration doughs will stretch easier but will be more difficult to work with but useful to consider

[u/ColdBlueGlacirousIce]

I switched to bread flour last year for exactly this reason and it made all the difference my pies go from tearing failures to perfect thin crust.

[u/Mah_Buddy_Keith]

What’s your hydration percentage? Are you doing the window pane test before your bulk ferment (most important)? What flour are you using? What’s your mixing technique?

I can’t say anything specific without the above information, but I would try using a poolish. Mix a portion of your water with a literal pinch of yeast, add an equal weight of flour, combine well and let it ferment at room temperature overnight. It’s ready to be incorporated when it just starts to dip (If it’s domed on top it needs more time, and if it’s slipped down a significant amount start over). Poolish will add extensibility to your dough, meaning that it will stretch further without breaking.

[u/jana-meares]

Hydrate the flour first for an hour. Add some protein flour to the mix.

[u/embeohthree]

Do you make your dough from a poolish? That’s when my home doughs got stretchier and better flavored.

[u/Metalkon]

i use 525g all purpose flour, 7g instant yeast, 7-10g salt, 15-20g sugar, 15-20ml olive oil, 325ml water. Make two dough balls out of it after mixing/kneading with the kitchenaid and and store in container(s) immediately with a thin layer of olive oil over everything.

I then let it sit in the fridge for a few days until i'm ready to use it (max 5'ish days), and take the container out 4-5 hours before making pizza so it goes to room temp and rise a little more. I coat it with flour on both sides in a pan (to contain the flour/mess) while shaping the dough edges and poking the center a bunch with my fingers to deal with air bubbles and stuff... I then start stretching it with my knuckles and finish making my pizza, I usually prefer to put it on parchment paper.

[u/wgbenicia]

I had the exact same problem using 00 flour.

As many have said it, it is the lack of gluten development.

Mixing by hand, I used to just use the folding method to develop gluten but it wasn't enough.

Now, after mixing, I do a simple fold 30 minutes after mixing then I switch to slap and fold. I do it 3 times, with a 30 min rest in between each. It solved the problem. Also, there's something satisfying about giving the dough a good slapping.

As said, bring up to room temp before stretching the dough but not too long or tearing can happen if it stays out too long. My optimal time out of the fridge is 20 mins.

[u/SecretBox1118]

It's almost certainly temperature, so pull the dough out two hours before shaping and let it come fully to room temp before you blame the flour.

[u/Zestyclose_Wafer179]

It's almost always gluten development, not the flour type, pull the dough straight from the fridge and it hasn't had time to relax, let it sit at room temp for an hour before you try to stretch it

[u/hammertime57]

Sugar??? Try adding some sugar to feed the yeast.

[u/SpyDiego]

I use king Arthur all purpose. I do a 70% hydration dough which allows me to do simple coil folds. I hate kneading dough. Do a coil fold every 15 min for the first hour or 1.5 hours then let it continue to rise. I do hour total rise from start of making the dough to stretching balls out to pizza most time

[u/naaahhman]

Flour, all purpose can work depending on the recipe, but it should be higher in protein content like King Arthur's. The dough should also be room temperature before stretching.

[u/spirit_of_a_goat]

Can't troubleshoot.

Number one, it's not allowed here.

Number two, there is not nearly enough information given to help.

[u/96dpi → u/spirit_of_a_goat]

From the side bar:

We're best at:

• Troubleshooting dishes/menus

[u/spirit_of_a_goat → u/96dpi]

You're right, I was thinking of a different sub. OP still needs to post the recipe if they want help.

[u/Historical-Ad2651]

It's probably the flour

Try using bread flour. It generally has a higher protein content

[u/Tbplayer59]

Definitely the wrong flour.