I make pizza for the family every week, so I guess I could contribute to
this discussion.
First of all, let the dough rest for about 10-15 minutes before forming
the crust. If you knead it just before you try to form the pizza, it
will fight you back. I leave it on the board under the bowl for this
step.
Now, you have a nice mound of dough on your well-floured board (at at
least one national chain of pizza places, they use cornmeal instead of
flour on the board, but they probably don't have any flour in the place
since they truck in the dough!). Gently round the mound evenly. Now,
with the edge of your hand, crease the dough a little ways in from the
edge all the way around. It should look a little like a derby hat!
Using the tips of your fingers, poke the dough all over vigorously,
leaving dimples all over it. The pizza chains have a little roller with
dowels sticking out to do this part.
Now for the fun part. Make sure your hands are floured well and use
your fists on the underside of the dough to stretch it gently all around
until it is round and flat. You may wish to flip the dough over to get
both sides floured and to stretch it evenly. When it is the right size,
flip it onto your pizza peel which has been well sprinkled with cornmeal
or Cream of Wheat to insure that it slides off onto the stone. Pinch
the edges of the pizza up to hold all the goodies, and add sauce or
whatever you are using, and the rest of the goodies. (in reference to
the "goodies": be careful when adding moist vegetables like mushrooms
and peppers. They sweat a lot of liquid into the pizza and can cause
runny fillings. I try to limit the amount of such toppings and place
them on top of the cheese so the liquid evaporates during baking) When
it is just as you like it, slide it off the peel onto the hot stone and
bake until done. Eateateateateat....
As far as throwing the dough up into the air..."The Cooks Bible" says
that any cookbook that tells you to do that at home should be taken out
and burned. Now that we have said that... I have tried it, but since I
have a ceiling fan in my kitchen, and usually have pretty good luck with
the other method, I don't usually bother. Just be sure your arms are
bare to the elbow and your watch and rings are elsewhere! It looks
impressive, though!
Have a lot of fun with your pizza!
Ruth
--
For my bread recipe on my uncle's really cool website:
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Delphi/5520/roadkill3.html