Many of us spend a lot of effort in perfecting our sauce and selecting the right toppings when we make pizza at home. But most of us overlook an important thing – the dough tray. This simple tool can make a big difference in how your pizza turns out, by ensuring that its dough has risen well as it bakes uniformly. In short, this blog encompasses the importance of a pizza dough tray, how to use it, and tips for taking care of it.
Table of Contents
Why You Need a Pizza Dough Tray?
A pizza dough tray is important for several reasons:
Proper Dough Fermentation
Good pizzas start with great dough and fermentation is what gives the right flavor and texture. A dough tray provides ideal conditions for your dough to rise slowly and evenly so that your pizza tastes better.
Consistent Shape and Size
Using a tray maintains uniformity in the shape and size of your dough balls. This ensures even cooking and a professional appearance.
Easy Handling
The dough can be sticky and difficult to handle. The dough tray is designed to make handling and moving the dough easier without it sticking to every other thing or losing its shape.
Optimal Moisture Retention
A good dough tray should keep the moisture of the dough while allowing it to breathe. This equilibrium brings about that perfect crust – crunchy outside and chewy inside.
Choosing the Right Pizza Dough Tray
There are some elements you need to consider when looking for a pizza dough tray;
Material of dough tray
wood, Plastic, stainless steel or aluminium are what those trays could be made out of, plastic ones being light and cheaper while stainless steel and aluminium ones are more lasting and free from stains, while wood one is royal and antique
Size of dough tray
Make sure the tray is big enough for the number of dough balls you plan to make. Although, standard sizes exist custom sizes may be necessary for larger quantities.
Lid of dough tray
A tight-fitting lid ascertains that the dough does gets contaminated by impurities found in air, also, keeping anything from drying up too. Some of these trays possess stackable lids that allow for storing multiple trays at a time.
How to use a Pizza Dough Tray?
Prepare the Dough
Mix the dough and divide it into portions before rolling them into balls that are even in shape.
Grease the Tray
Apply olive oil or a non-stick-spray to lightly grease the tray so that it doesn’t stick and it is easy to remove the dough from it.
Place the Dough Balls
With enough space for rising, put the dough balls on this baking sheet /plate/tray/casserole dish/pan/ and cover with a lid or plastic wrap.
Ferment
Depending on your recipe, you can ferment it in a fridge or cool environment by just leaving this tray overnight or up to 48 hours before cooking. This slow rise will improve flavor and texture.
Use the Dough
Before stretching and shaping, allow the dough to reach room temperature if you want to make pizza right now. You may refrigerate the remaining pizza dough for the next use, for details you may visit my blog https://versatilepizza.com/can-you-refrigerate-pizza-dough/
Maintenance of Your Pizza Dough Tray
Taking care of your pizza tray will help increase its life span as well as protect your dough against being contaminated.
Cleaning
After each use, wash it with warm soapy water, avoid using abrasives that can damage its surface.
Sanitizing
Regularly sanitize the tray to prevent bacterial growth. Using food-safe sanitizer or mild bleach is recommended.
Storage
The tray has to be stored in a cool and dry place. Stack multiple trays neatly to save space and keep them organized.
Conclusion
A pizza dough tray may appear insignificant but its contribution towards improving homemade pizzas is huge. It also makes sure the dough rises in the
right conditions so as to have a consistent outcome. Therefore, it helps you achieve the best crust ever every time you are making your pizza by ensuring that your dough is held at its ideal temperature for rising purposes. So when you are planing to make pizza next time, do not forget about this important utensil.
Have fun while baking!
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