What to Do with Pizza Dough That Is Too Sticky

If you’re just learning how to prepare pizza dough, your dough may be overly sticky. When this occurs, your pizza dough may adhere to everything, including your hands, the pan, and even the counter.

Fortunately, there are a few solutions for removing the stickiness.

What Makes Pizza Dough Sticky?

The components in pizza dough are responsible for its stickiness. Obviously, it must be sticky enough to keep together, but not so sticky that it clings to everything in its vicinity. Flour, yeast, sugar, salt, water, and oil are used to make pizza dough.

You combine these ingredients first, then knead the dough. This is what causes the dough to be sticky. Flour contains gluten, and the gluten response is what makes the dough elastic and smooth. This is what causes the dough to cling together.

If you over-knead your dough, follow the advice in this article on how to correct over-kneaded dough.

In general, there are three primary causes of sticky pizza dough:

• Too much water: Using too much water (or any other wet ingredient) in your pizza dough may cause it to become soggy and tacky.
• Too little mixing: If you do not thoroughly mix the dough, it can become gummy and sticky.
• Using cold water in the dough: Using cold water in the dough may need more proving time or a higher room temperature.

How to Fix Sticky Dough

Depending on why your dough is sticky, you will attempt several strategies to cure it and remove the stickiness. The first step is to incorporate flour.

The pizza dough is usually sticky because there is too much water and not enough flour. Adding flour will help to remove the stickiness.

You should go gently, adding a little amount of flour at a time. Knead the dough well after each addition, then repeat until the dough is no longer adhering to your hands or the surface. This should solve the issue if you used too much water.

If your dough hasn’t been combined long enough or thoroughly enough, return it to the bowl and continue mixing. When it is finished, it will be smooth, bouncy, and spongy, and it will no longer be sticky.

Finally, if you used cold water, you may need to prove the dough for a longer period of time. Though many recipes ask for warm water for the yeast, you may use cold water (and some may even call for it) if you make the necessary alterations to how you manage the dough.

If you use cold water, you may need to prove the dough for a longer period of time. This provides the dough more time to build the gluten linkages required to make a good dough.

Warmer water aids in the formation of a stronger network and the retention of moisture in the dough. It may be simpler to use warm water, but if you must use cold water, give the dough plenty of time.

Environmental Factors That You Need to Consider

The environment and weather, as well as the altitude at which you bake, may all influence the stickiness of your pizza dough. You may follow the recipe perfectly and yet wind up with sticky pizza dough if you don’t account for humidity or other environmental conditions.

If humidity is an issue for you, see my advice for baking in high humidity.

If there is a lot of humidity when you are making pizza dough, the dough may absorb a lot of extra water. This means your dough will be sticky.

It is critical to use less water than the recipe specifies for when creating pizza dough in humid weather. You may easily add a few tablespoons at a time to get the desired consistency for the pizza dough.

The altitude is another aspect that will influence how you make your pizza dough. Higher elevations tend to dry out the dough and activate the yeast more rapidly, causing the dough to rise too fast.

However, when baking at lower altitudes, particularly at sea level, the dough may be wetter to begin with.

The remedy is to withhold part of the water while making the dough. Once you can knead it and start activating the yeast, add the remaining water a few teaspoons at a time.

You should be able to get the dough to the appropriate consistency without the stickiness if you take your time and proceed gently.

How to Prevent Pizza Dough from Becoming Too Sticky

Avoiding sticky pizza dough in the first place is the easiest method to deal with it. Make sure you follow the directions while making your dough.

Furthermore, you might begin by using just around 60% of the water specified in the recipe.

To avoid stickiness when kneading the dough, cover your hands and the area you’re working on with flour. Remember that if you add too much flour to the recipe, it will alter and your pizza dough will not come out nicely.

When kneading the dough, make an effort to keep the exterior on the outside and the inner on the inside. Instead of folding and ripping the dough, roll it, crush it, and stretch it. The way you knead the dough might affect how it comes out, so this will assist.

You may alternatively roll the dough with a little oil on the surface. The crucial thing to remember is that the dough will stay together better and develop more as you go through the initial kneading step.

This will prepare it for you to add the remaining water until the pizza dough is ready to bake.

Learn how to properly store the ideal pizza dough now that you’ve prepared it!