Knead the pizza dough, until it becomes soft, smooth and sticky. Leave the dough to rise and then give it the desired shape. Decide what size and thickness of pizza you want to make. From the resulting piece of dough, you can make one or more pizzas of different thicknesses.
Divide the dough into portions if you will be making more than one pizza. Sprinkle some flour on the work surface and roll out the dough on it. Shape the dough into a round or rectangular shape. After deciding on the size and thickness of the pizza, gently stretch out the dough with your hands.
If you want to make a rectangular pizza, first, stretch the ball of dough to form an oval. Then gently pull the corners to shape the dough into a rectangle. If you want to make a round pizza, stretch the ball (or several balls) of dough into a circle. If you find it difficult to stretch the dough by hand, try rolling it out a bit with a rolling pin.
Cover the dough and leave it for 15 minutes. If making round pizzas, use baking pans that are larger than the pizza, turn them over and cover the dough. If you are making a rectangular pizza, take a large sheet of plastic wrap, spray it with baking spray, cover the dough and leave it for 15 minutes. The pizza dough may rise slightly, but it should not double in volume.
Spray a piece of baking paper with cooking spray and place the dough on it. If you don't have cooking spray, coat a piece of baking sheet paper with a little olive oil. Carefully place the rolled out dough on the baking tray and stretch the edges to the sides of the tray. Olive oil will help the dough aquire an appetizing crust and will not allow the pizza to burn in the baking pan.
Leave the dough for another 15 minutes and stretch it out one last time. Cover the dough with a bowl or plastic wrap and let it rest for 15 minutes at room temperature. Then remove the tray or cling film and use your fingers to stretch the edges of the pizza to the corners of the baking tray. The stretched out dough should fill the entire baking pan.
Cover the dough and wait an hour and a half for it to rise. If the dough has been refrigerated, it will need an additional 30-60 minutes to rise. Then garnish it as you like and bake it.
With this dough you can prepare your favourite:
- closed pizza.
