Why Is My Pizza Dough Sticky – How Can I Fix It?

Why is my pizza dough sticky and is there any way to fix the pizza dough was one of the issues I faced a lot when I started making pizzas.

 Count that with the problems of my pizza dough is too wet and these were the two common issues I faced initially while making the pizza dough.

This post is about the different aspects of making the perfect pizza dough and how to solve the problem of a sticky dough. So, Will sticky pizza dough rise? 

Actually, it does rise but the final product is not as good as you might want it to be if your pizza dough gets too sticky.

So, how do you fix a pizza dough that is too wet or how do you make the dough less sticky with flour?

I would explain all the techniques that I used in order to get rid of the sticky pizza dough situation.

See, making pizza might seem simple, but if you do it from scratch, it involves many aspects that overtime becomes second nature to the pizza chef.

You should be accurate with the measurements and the type of ingredients.

It all starts with the pizza dough and it needs to be perfect or else you will have a soggy pizza.

 The crust is the part that combines with the flavors of the pizza so it needs to be perfect.

It is also the part that holds the pizza together so you need to make sure that you do it correctly. 

There are many problems that you might encounter when making pizza dough.

One of the common problems that go along with making pizza dough is consistency.

 Either you get a perfect pizza dough or you have to deal with and fix a bad one to improve the pizza.

Dry pizza dough is easy to solve because you only need to add more water. 

On the other hand, sticky pizza dough involves a lot of processes to fix it and make it usable for your pizza. The main problem here is that usually, my pizza dough is too wet.

What Makes Pizza Dough Sticky?

Multiple factors can cause sticky pizza dough. Some involve the ingredients that you use and other causes are from the process itself in making the dough at home or by yourself.

First, let us discuss the problems with the ingredients that you use for making the pizza dough. 

You need to make sure that you use enough liquid to hydrate the flour within the dough.

The most common problem with this is the amount of water that you use when making the pizza. Again, my pizza dough is too wet so you need  a solution for this.

The water might be too much which makes the dough over-hydrated when processed.

 Over-hydrated pizza dough is bad as it will use up all the gluten in the flour. 

That would mean that the dough will easily rip apart when you stretch or knead it at even the slightest pull. 

This can also mean that you might have used too much oil in the dough. If you ask yourself why the  pizza dough is too wet, well, oil can be a factor aside from too much water. 

Oil can help make the dough not stick to surfaces but too much oil can make the dough too wet and sticky.

As for making the dough, you need to make sure that you knead the dough the right way. 

There are two most common ways of kneading the dough to get the right consistency. 

First, you can use a stand mixer with a paddle attachment to slowly combine the dough’s ingredients.

You can use a stand mixer to knead the dough for a cleaner process.

Kneading by hand involves gentle pushing and pulling of the dough to combine and activate the ingredients. 

You need to time it as well and knead the dough for only around 5 to 8 minutes.

Improper Gluten Development Can Cause Sticky Pizza Dough?

Timing the kneading process is extremely important as it will determine whether the dough and the gluten in it are activated or not. 

That comes with the perfect timing and kneading process. I knead the dough for about five minutes and that helps the dough to form gluten bonds causing it to be stretchy.

Kneading the dough starts to activate the gluten within the flour you use. 

This gives the dough the ability to stretch when you need it to without breaking or having holes in the dough.

 One common mistake made by beginners is they do not knead the dough enough. When kneading, if the dough sticks to your hands then should ask yourself, is my pizza dough is too wet? 

They think that over-kneading the dough is bad so they end up kneading the dough only for a few seconds.

If you do not knead the dough enough, you will end up with gluten proteins inside the flour that are not activated and covered by too much flour that the yeast will not activate.

While over-kneading the dough is also bad, you need to make sure you knead the dough correctly.

You need to make sure that the gluten is starting to activate when you knead it. 

By kneading the dough and activating the gluten in it, you will make dough with the right consistency. 

The result of not enough kneading will be crumbly and dry pizza dough. This gets you asking will sticky pizza dough rise? Not as much as normal dough but there are ways to fix this.

What Is A Good Hydration Level To Avoid Sticky Pizza Dough?

 Hydration level is also one of the most important aspects or factors when making pizza dough.

It determines the consistency of the pizza dough and whether the gluten activates or not.

 Hydration is usually dependent on the type of flour that you use on your dough. 

There are different types of flour that you can use and they all have different water absorption levels.

 The most important thing to understand is the accuracy of the measurements when it comes to hydration. 

The safest number to try and attain when it comes to this aspect is 65% hydration.

The higher the hydration level, the thinner you can get the pizza crust to be.

However, if you go over 70% hydration the dough will become too sticky for kneading and shaping the dough.

If you want to fix a sticky dough that has too much water and if you wondering how do you make dough less sticky with flour then just be careful with the hydration of the pizza dough.

If you add too much dough you can decrease the hydration of the pizza dough. 

So, while you are trying to learn how to make pizza dough less sticky with flour, be careful not to mess up the hydration level of the flour.

What To Do If Your Dough Is Too Sticky?

 Luckily for us, amateurs, there are some ways that you can try to master to fix your sticky dough. 

There are some very simple and effective ways to fix this very common problem. 

First, you can start kneading the dough until you have the right consistency. 

Flour a clean work surface with a thin layer of flour and place the sticky dough on the work surface.

Use your hands to knead the dough by punching or slowly pushing the dough outwards. 

You then continue kneading the dough while you turn the dough around with your other hand. 

You also need to activate the gluten inside the flour by folding the dough inward. 

That will flip the dough and activate the gluten proteins stuck in the middle of the dough.

If that technique does not seem to work or you think it is too hard since you do not have that much experience, you can use a stand mixer to do the kneading for you.

You can also add more flour to the dough to mess up the sticky consistency. Knowing how do you make dough less sticky with flour takes practice to get to the right consistency.

The key to understanding how do you make dough less sticky with flour, make sure to add the flour in small portions at a time.

Lightly add flour through the work surface or sprinkle some while kneading the dough.

Will sticky pizza dough rise? Read on as we take on deeper topics to answer if will sticky pizza dough rise in a more detailed way.

How Do You Keep Pizza Dough From Sticking?

A sticky dough will mess up everything along with the other ingredients on the pizza but most importantly it is just difficult to manage.

There are many ways on how to fix sticky pizza dough or how do you fix pizza dough that is too wet but it is better to avoid it.

You get to see when you will be able to cook with the dough once it is ready, but you need to work for it.

There are many ways to ensure that the dough will not stick on the work surface, container, or the pizza oven when you cook it. This will give you the perfect crust on your pizzas.

I would like to reiterate that you need to get the right measurements on the ingredients that you use. Starting with the right measurements is better than figuring out how do you fix pizza dough that is too wet.

Ensure that you have enough flour, water, oil, yeast, salt, and sugar (if necessary). This is the best way to prevent looking for solutions on how to fix sticky pizza dough.

One way to do this is to make sure that you use a kitchen scale to measure the weight of each ingredient down to the last gram. 

This is the best way to make sure that you have just enough. 

That way, you will not deal with sticky pizza dough and end up spending hours figuring out how to fix pizza dough that is too sticky.

Using cups, teaspoons, tablespoons, and other measuring instruments for the ingredients is pretty inaccurate. Being accurate at first is better than trying to see how to fix sticky pizza dough.

There might be some spaces within the cup that can mess up the dough.

Allow the dough to rise as well and then knead it again. 

That way, the gluten will not only be the activated minerals but you will also have the yeast working after letting the dough rise for a bit.

So maybe you have made very sticky pizza dough, and it gets you asking will sticky pizza dough rise? There are solutions below that you can resort to.

Yes, actually it rises normally as any other dough but make sure you fix your sticky dough before you keep it out for proofing.

How To Stretch A Sticky Pizza Dough?

 If you have a sticky dough and do not have time to prepare another, you can stretch it to make it less sticky.

The most common reason for this is the pizza dough is too wet. So how do you fix pizza dough that is too wet?

If you think there is no solution to how to fix sticky pizza dough, then you might be wrong. This is easy as you do it just how you would stretch any pizza dough.

First, add flour to the working surface so you can manage the dough easier.

Do the same with your hands or use oil and rub a thin layer on both hands to prevent the dough from sticking.

Start by lightly massaging the dough from the center. 

You can also repeat the kneading process to further activate the gluten inside the flour and become more elastic. This is how do you fix pizza dough that is too wet if you have one on hand.

Flatten the palm of your hands and then slowly push the thick center outwards. 

Get to the edges and use one hand to turn the dough around as you stretch the dough outward.

Add flour occasionally but make sure that you do not overdo it. 

Just add about a teaspoon of flour occasionally until the dough hardly sticks to your hands or the work surface.

 Just make sure to continue stretching the dough as it will more likely come back to its previous shape. 

Also do not add too much flour to the point that the dough becomes crumbly and dry.

Even after a few tries, you will know how to fix sticky pizza dough or how to make dough less sticky with flour so do not get frustrated on your first try.

Transferring A Sticky Pizza Dough On The Pizza Peel

This is a simple task and even if you still have a sticky dough, you can still easily slide a sticky pizza onto your pizza peel. 

After you have learned how do you fix pizza dough that is too wet and you are ready for cooking, you should know how to handle it for the next parts of the process.

All you need is a little bit of cornmeal on both the peel and work surface.

Cornmeal helps prevent the flour or the dough from sticking to the surface with the fine powder that slightly lifts the damp or sticky dough off the surface and the pizza peel. 

So first, put some cornmeal on the pizza peel and then lift the side of the dough nearest to you. 

Slowly pull the dough on the peel as you jerk the pizza peel towards and underneath the dough.

Once the whole pizza dough is on the pizza peel, test it by giving the pizza peel some light jerks back and forth. 

If the pizza has one side that does not move, lift it and put some cornmeal under that area.

How To Prevent The Sticky Pizza Dough From Sticking On The Pizza Stone While Cooking? 

Once you have the pizza dough on the peel, you can then arrange the whole thing.

Put a thin layer of sauce over the dough and then evenly distribute the toppings on the pizza.

From there, do the same jerk motion and then transfer the pizza from the pizza peel to the pizza stone. 

Now, there is still a huge possibility that the dough will still stick on the pizza stone.

To avoid this, you do not need to add flour or cornmeal to the pizza stone.

All you need to do is to preheat the oven with the pizza stone inside it.

Once the pizza stone gets so hot, it will instantly evaporate the moisture from the sticky pizza and make it crispy. So always preheat the pizza stone to prevent the dough from sticking to it. 

Hope this post helps, if you have any more questions, leave them in the comments and I would be happy to help!