I want to share with you the little tools I use every time I get my hands dirty with flour & water. Using them is for sure a bit of a professional deformation for me, but honestly they make the whole process way smoother, so I can't see no reason why I should NOT use them. Besides, all of them are very affordable and easy to find, so in my opinion they are no-brainers.
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1. Kitchen scale
I can’t be 100% sure because I live in the UK, but I tend to exclude that in the professional world anyone uses volumetrics.
If you want precision (and you should!) you simply can not rely on them.
Let’s take the flour, for example: one cup of all purpose flour weighs 128 grams, while a cup of bread flour weighs 135 grams.
Now, this difference might sound negligible to you, but it actually means that for the same amount of water, you would use MORE strong flour than all purpose flour...which is exactly the opposite of what you do in real life.
This also explains WHY, even though you follow the same recipe, you get a dough with different consistency/texture just by changing the flour.
So do yourself a favour, make your life easier and buy a cheap kitchen scale.
2. Probe thermometer
If I had to mention only one reason for using a thermometer, it would be to prevent us from killing the yeast.
Think about active dry yeast, for example: we dissolve it in water, as per directions on the package, in order to activate it. However, if you increase the temperature of the water too much, you will kill the yeast.
Remember, yeast thrives when the temperature is between 20° and 40° Celsius (68° to 104° Fahrenheit).
This is one of the reasons why I recommend using room temperature water, it’s unlikely your kitchen falls outside of this range.
But if you really want to warm your water, at least play it safe: get a cheap thermometer, stick it in the water and make sure that the temperature falls in the range I mentioned.
3. Scraper
Whether you use your table or a board, you will always leave some residue on the surface, because as you know the dough is sticky in its early stages of kneading.
Use a scraper to gently scratch the surface you are working on.
Personally, I do it while I knead so I can incorporate all those little bits into my dough. I appreciate that this comes mostly from my “allergy” to waste in general but it’s also very convenient when it’s time to clean, as you will find less mess to deal with.
A scraper will last for a long time so the tiny investment will be absolutely worth it.
4. Round containers
A dough ball is round. Pizza is round.
And ok, it comes in a square box, cut it in triangles, but that’s another story 😁
Let’s make our life easier once again! If we store the dough in something that’s already round, when it’s time to stretch it we’re off to a good start. Oh, if you struggle with the stretching, I’ve got you covered with this video.
Those cute bowls usually come with their own lid, so you can keep your dough covered. Please pardon me if I sound obvious here, but you have no idea how many times people asked me why their dough was so dry and the problem was that they left it uncovered…
Besides, the lids usually make the containers stackable, which is very convenient.
5. Paddle or peel
We need a tool to slide the pizza inside the oven.
I have a metal paddle, but wooden ones work better as the dough is less likely to stick on it.
However, once you’re experienced enough, you don’t really care about the material. There are some nice perforated metal peels, excellent to get rid of most of the flour used during the stretching phase.
These tools might be a bit more expensive compared to the previous on the list. Although I don’t think that they break the bank, you might want to consider a DIY approach in this case.
In fact, there’s a good chance you have a chopping board...As long as it’s light and easy to handle, it will do the job perfectly.
Alternative: an old shoe box! Or any box, for that matters.
Cover what you have with aluminium foil or parchment paper and you’re ready to rock and roll.
BONUS: Turning peel
This is not necessarily something you will always need, it mostly depends on how your oven works.
It’s a fact that many of our kitchen’s ovens don’t heat evenly, so you might have to spin your pizza to bake it perfectly. But probably you need to do it just once, so you can make do with tongs, if not your fingers!
By the way, I always use my turning peel, I also find it useful to remove pizza from the oven. Again, it’s probably a professional deformation.
There we go, this is the list of my favourite tools, the ones I use every single time when I make pizza. Please note that the links provided are affiliate, so if you decide to purchase the related item I might get a commission at NO extra cost for you.
I hope you liked this article, feel free to leave a comment to discuss or ask questions. If you found some value and you feel like supporting me, keep scrolling down and you will see several ways to pat my back!
Ciao, see you next time 🍕
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🌾 You can simply buy me a bag of flour
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