11 amazing stretching pizza dough tips to improve your pizza

Stretching pizza dough is hard. But it doesn’t have to be that way! With these 11 stretching pizza dough tips, you will have no more tearing, sticking, or hard dough to stretch, you will be able to stretch out perfectly round and even pizza that will puff up in the oven with a heavenly crust.

Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced pizza baker, these 11 tips will instantly take your pizza dough stretching to the next level so you can make perfect pies every time!

But before we get started, make sure you have a good pizza dough recipe. Bad pizza dough will make bad pizza and is going to make the stretching much harder than it needs to be. Here is an easy recipe to get you started: Easy Neapolitan pizza recipe.

Tips for stretching pizza dough:

Don’t use a rolling pin
Use the right flour
Knead your dough to make it more elastic
Let the dough relax to make it easier to stretch
Make sure the dough is at room temperature
Handle the dough carefully to preserve air bubbles that will create a good crust
Don’t use too high hydration
Flour the dough before stretching to avoid striking
Don’t stretch your pizza too thin
Adjust the dough on the peel to get the right shape
Have a few extra dough balls at hand in case things go wrong

Let’s dive in!

1. Don’t use a rolling pin

Using a rolling pin kills your crust! The number one mistake new pizza bakers make is using a rolling pin.

After rising, your pizza dough is filled with small air bubbles, and these air bubbles expand to a light, tall and airy crust in the oven.

But when you use a rolling pin to flatten your dough you will pop all these tiny bubbles and squeeze all the lovely gasses from the fermentation and that will give you a dense and heavy crust.

Preserving these bubbles is the key to a good pizza crust, so you should always hand-scratch your dough to preserve them.

2. Use the right flour

To make your dough easy to stretch, you have to start with the right type of flour.

The most important thing to consider when picking flour is the gluten content. Gluten plays a crucial role in pizza baking. It holds your dough together and is what makes it possible to stretch the dough. Without gluten, the dough will just fall apart.

A flour with too little gluten, such as All-purpose, will lead to ripping and tearing when you try to stretch. While flour with too high gluten content, such as bread flour, will lead to an elastic and tight dough that will spring back when you try to stretch it.

The best option is therefore a Tipo 00 pizza flour with a gluten content of around 11-13%. When kneaded properly this will make the easiest dough to shape and stretch into the perfect pizza!

When in Rome do as the Romans do, but when you want to make pizza do as the Neapolitans do. So my go-to flour is Caputo Pizzeria.

3. Knead your dough to make it more elastic

When you have the right flour you need to knead the dough enough to make it stretchy and avoid tearing. The rule of thumb is that you need to knead your dough for 10-15 minutes.

Kneading the dough allows it to form a strong gluten network. This is what gives your dough structure and holds it together. And the longer you knead, the stronger this network gets. And this gluten network is crucial for making stretchy pizza dough.

When the gluten network is strong enough it will be flexible and allow you to stretch the dough without tearing. If you don’t knead your dough enough the gluten network will be too weak, and the dough will just tear when you try to stretch it.

4. Let the dough relax to make it easier to stretch

Let your dough rest before stretching to l get softer and more extensible so it keeps its shape and doesn’t spring back. So give your pizza dough balls at least 4-6 hours to relax, and stretching them will become a breeze.

When you knead your dough, form dough balls, or handle the dough in any other way, the gluten in the dough gets tense and tight. When the gluten is tense the dough will just spring back if you attempt to stretch it. So you need to let the dough relax for several hours to get a dough that’s easy to stretch.

5. Make sure the dough is at room temperature

Temperature is another factor that makes gluten tenser, so if you use cold fermentation, you need to let the dough come to room temperature before stretching.

6. Handle the dough carefully to preserve air bubbles that will create a good crust

You should be careful when handling your dough to preserve the small air bubbles hidden inside. These air bubbles are what give you a lovely light and open crust.

Be careful when you’re moving your pizza dough to your stretching area when you flour and prepare the dough and when you stretch it.

When moving and handling the dough, I recommend using a pizza spatula and lifting your dough carefully. This way you will not squeeze the dough with your fingers and press out any air.

When you open and stretch the dough, start from the center and make sure to leave a 1/2 inch (1 cm) rim on the pizza. The tiny air bubbles inside the rim will puff up when your pizza hut the hot oven and create a lovely crust

7. Don’t use too high hydration

High-hydration dough creates an amazing crust, but it makes stretching harder. When you add more water to your dough, it gets both more stretchy and sticky.

Stretchy can be a good thing, but too stretchy can cause the center of your pizza to become too thin. And a thin center can easily tear, especially when you load sauce, cheese, and toppings on your pizza.

More water also makes the dough sticker. It will stick to your hands, your countertop, and your pizza peel. You can prevent it by using enough flour and working faster, but if you’re a beginner it’s much easier to work with dough that has a lower hydration level. This will give you a more manageable dough that doesn’t stick to everything.

So start at 60% and you can work your way up as you get more comfortable stretching pizza dough.

8. Flour the dough before stretching to avoid striking

Before you start stretching, make sure to flour the dough and your countertop to avoid sticking.

Covering the entire surface of your dough ball is the key to avoiding sticking. To do this, simply make a small pile of flour on your countertop or in a bowl (to make it less messy). Then, place your dough ball in the flour and turn it, ensuring that every part of the surface is coated and there are no sticky spots.

The best choice for flouring your dough ball is semolina since it can handle the high heat of a pizza oven. While you can also use pizza flour, using all-purpose can result in burnt flavors.

9. Don’t stretch your pizza too thin

If you stretch your pizza too thin, you run the risk of tearing it. So you should always use the appropriate amount of dough for the size of pizza you want to make.

Here is a table that will help you determine how much dough you need for different sizes of Neapolitan-style pizza:

Size (diameter)	Amount of dough
10 inches (25 cm)	200-220g
11 inches (28 cm)	220-240g
12 inches (30 cm)	240-260g
13 inches (33 cm)	260-280g
14 inches (35 cm)	280g

10. Adjust the dough on the peel to get the right shape

When baking Neapolitan pizza a common technique to prevent the dough from getting too thin, and to get the perfect shape, is to do the final stretching and shaping on the peel, right before the pizza goes into the oven.

Simply stretch your pizza to around 80%-90% of the final size (diameter), top the pizza, move it to the peel, and stretch it out to its full size on the peel. Then do any final adjustments to get the perfect shape.

For example, if you want to make a 12-inch pizza, stretch it to 10 inches, and do the final stretch to the full 12 inches on the peel. This way you reduce the risk of tearing, and you get the opportunity to make adjustments so your pizza gets perfectly round every time.

11. Have a few extra dough balls at hand in case things go wrong

It’s always a good idea to have a few extra dough balls in case things go wrong. Especially as a beginner. So make a few extra pizza dough balls so you’re prepared if things don’t go according to the plan.

If you have leftover dough, you can always store them in the fridge for a couple of days or freeze it for a few months. You never know when the pizza cravings will kick in!

Final words

Equipped with these 11 pizza dough stretching tips, you will take your pizza game to the next level!

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Andreas

Andreas, the founder of The Pizza Heaven, has spent the last 20 years mastering the art and craft of Neapolitan pizza. With a profound passion for pizza, sharing, and teaching, he launched this website in 2019 to guide both new and seasoned pizza-makers in elevating their Neapolitan pizza skills.