Pizza dough troubleshooting
Something went sideways? Find the symptom below. Each page sorts the likely causes, tells you how to spot which one you’ve got, what to do right now, and how to plan it away next time — with the deeper theory one link away in the guides.
Dough won't stretch or springs back
A round that pings back to a disc every time you open it isn't weak — it's tight. Springy, uncooperative dough almost always comes down to gluten that hasn't relaxed, and the cure is nearly always time, not muscle.
Dough didn't rise
Flat, dense dough hours later is disappointing but rarely hopeless. Three things stall a rise — yeast that's dead, yeast that's too little, or a kitchen too cold to let it work — and you can usually still bake something good.
Dough too sticky to handle
First, reassurance: tacky dough is usually working as intended. Higher-hydration styles are meant to stick a little, and the answer is technique, not a handful of flour. But a couple of cases are genuine problems.
Overproofed or collapsed dough
Dough that's gone too far is flat-topped, blistered with big surface bubbles, and smells more like beer than bread — the gas has outrun the gluten. You can often still bake it; just manage expectations.
Dough tears or makes holes when stretching
Holes appear when the gluten net gives out faster than it can stretch. Usually that's weak or under-developed gluten, sometimes a dry over-floured patch, and very often just going too fast.
Pizza stuck to the peel
The heartbreak launch: toppings on, oven roaring, and the pizza won't slide. Sticking is almost always about time and moisture between the dough and the peel — and it's very preventable.
The clock is a suggestion. The dough is the boss. In bocca al lupo!
Impasto is a free pizza dough calculator for Neapolitan, New York, Roman, Sicilian, Detroit, thin crust and focaccia doughs — flour, water, salt and yeast weighed in baker's percentages, with the fermentation schedule written for you.