How do you guys spread your dough out? Spread by hand or toss? I do a hand spread then a hold and hang whil rotating kind of deal. It doesn't make for very even thickness. The last pepperoni pizza pic I posted in this thread looks round because I trimmed it with a pizza cutter after I laid it out.
I just googled how to toss pizza and came across this video. http://youtu.be/VIJlRXMfW50 As I was watching I was saying to myself, ok, I can do that, I can do that, I can do that too, then he explains how to toss it and becomes a Harlem Globetrotter. Kind of cracks me up how it went from being very informative to me thinking I'll just keep trying to spread my dough on a flat surface. Let me know how do yours and if you had the same thought on the video as I did.
Tossing dough is pretty easy. Doing it fast... is hard. You can try with a damp wet washcloth (square one).
I do like that guy does... But he seems kinda hard on the dough when he jams his fingers into it. Most things I have read/seen suggest not using your finger tips like that, more kinda your like your first knuckle from the tip/the area between first and second knuckle and not pressing too hard so that you don't squeeze the air out, rather push the dough and air gently out towards the edge to form a rim.
You put the dough over the back of your floured hands, making fists with one fist in front of the other not side by side (as in on fist is further from your chest...)
You then kinda widen your fists, while using them to rotate the pizza moving them from one in front of the other to side by side while tossing the dough up.
Man... I think I did a bad job explaining, kinda hard, lol.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWL__9yDu8INotice how he uses his fingers in the first 20 seconds. I wouldn't be that frantic with it to start with.
Using a rolling pin I dissagree with... Kinda seems like after all the fermentation, gluten development, building up of gasses with in the gluten matrix... Just to smash it out with a rolling pin.
I don't do the throw back and forth from this (~35 second mark) video either.
He also holds his hands differently... But you can see how while he recommends starting with hands side by side, when he goes to toss he dips down and puts one in front of the other like i recommend.
The important part is how he spins his hands around each other while moving upwards.
Tossing dough is kinda a party trick though IMO.
I tend to just rest it over my knuckles like I was going to toss it, but stretch it out gently by gravity and gently pulling my fists apart, repositioning hands after each stretch to rotate the dough and stretch it evenly.
I also like this method, while I have not practice it much.... It helps stretch the dough by its own weight with out squishing it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4L06JtWLd5cThough this guy slaps it more then I think is needed in the beginning, you get the point that your left hand gently stretches the dough and then tosses it over the back of your right hand as you lift it up, then you flip your hand back down slightly rotating the dough and stretching the dough as its flung back onto the table.