Gluten and Flour

• Bread flour makes the best pizza dough, according to the editors of "Cook's Illustrated Magazine," because it makes the pizza crust both chewy and crisp. But bread flour also contains more gluten, one of two protein molecules in flour, than cake flour or all-purpose flour. Kneading changes the organization of the gluten molecules, making them stronger and giving dough the elasticity it needs to stretch and inevitably to spring back as well.

Keeping Your Dough Soft

• Dough that is soft stretches more easily and has less shrinking than stiffer dough. To soften your pizza dough, experiment with adding just a little more water than you normally do, or start the yeast for your dough in warm water to add moisture at the beginning of the process. The downside of adding more water is a more sticky and less elastic dough, so you may need to pat the dough out with your fingers instead of using a rolling pin.

Give It a Rest

• When you allow pizza dough to rest, enzymes in the dough, called proteases, break the bonds of the gluten proteins and make the dough easier to work with. Begin with dough that is at room temperature instead of refrigerated dough. Then, give the dough one or two rest periods of at least 5 minutes each while you are rolling it out, covering it with a damp cloth so it doesn't dry out.

The Rolling Process

• Although you don't want your pizza dough to incorporate too much flour and become stiff, you must generously flour your rolling surface. Keep the flour container in reach so you can sprinkle more flour as needed. Begin by patting out the dough with your fingers and shaping it by hand. Give yourself plenty of room to roll the dough in all directions, and flip it frequently to flour the underside. Exercise patience and keep rolling until the dough reaches the size you want.