Roll out Dough
Rolling out dough has been a mainstay of baking for centuries. It's an enjoyable experience, as well as a good opportunity to exercise your hand and arm muscles.
Steps
- Find a flat surface in your kitchen. This could be a counter, table, even the stove if you have a large flat wooden board to work on.
- Lightly flour the surface and the rolling pin.
- Roll the dough into a large ball and place it in the middle of the floured space.
- Use your hands to press it down into a flatter circle about 1 inch or 2.5cm thick.
- Take the rolling pin and set it on top of the flattened dough. Press down and let the pin rotate as you push it. Roll out the dough away from you in gentle even strokes.
- Turn it occasionally in order to keep an approximately circular piece.
- Always starting in the middle, continue to roll away from you until it makes as thin a sheet as you need for your recipe.
Tips
- Make sure the surface is big enough to hold the whole piece of dough once it gets rolled out.
- Be sure your hands and board are well floured, and have the flour bin nearby to add more as you need it, when the board begins to stick.
- Flour will fall off the edge of the surface onto the floor or your clothes, so stand back and be ready to sweep up later.
- Have your recipe, empty bowl, baking sheet, and other tools at hand since your hands will get really sticky.
- Don't press harder than you need or handle the dough too much, since that makes it tougher. Handle the rolled out sheet gently.
- If you make it wrong, you can always collect the whole thing up again into a big ball and start over.
- You can use several other things if you don't have a rolling pin, including a clean dowel or plastic piece of about 1-2 inches in diameter, or a large can or flat bottle.
- To move a pie crust, slide it onto a piece of waxed paper.
Warnings
- Do not handle dough unnecessarily; this can make it too hard. Follow what your recipe suggests.
- Watch out! Make sure your fingers don't get in the way of the roller!
Things You'll Need
- Roller
- Dough
- Flour
Related Articles
Sources and Citations
- Kids Can Cook! by Nicola Graimes - research source
