After having kneaded the pizza dough, it should be formed into a round ball with as smooth a surface as possible. This is important to keep the air “trapped” in the dough and thus obtain an airy dough at the end. You can also see exactly how to do this in the video below.

Shape the pizza dough round

To shape the pizza dough round, lift the dough and fold it over itself; you can do this with force and several times, so the dough gains strength. Then, with both hands, push the dough ball towards you. This will automatically create a smoother surface on the dough. The process can be repeated several times: just lift the dough, place it upwards on the work surface and push the dough towards you again with your hands.

Over time the dough gets smoother and stronger

Immediately after kneading, the dough may still have a “moon crater”-like surface and may also be slightly sticky. Don’t worry, this is normal. One trick is to cover the dough (e.g. with a bowl) and let it rest for 30 minutes. During this time the dough can relax and the gluten structure also becomes stronger during this time. After the 30 minutes you will see that the surface of the dough has become much smoother. When lifting the dough, you will notice that the gluten structure and thus the whole dough has become more stable. Now repeat the above technique and you will have a smoother and more stable dough ball!

Thanks for reading! I hope this post on how to shape the pizza dough was valuable to you. If you have any unanswered questions, feel free to let me know in the comments. I’d appreciate it if you could share this article with your friends.

Julia