Today, when I was rolling the dough for my Podpłomyk, I noticed that I actually need to use quite a lot of flour to prevent the dough from sticking to the rolling pin and the board. Is there a way around that, for example some substitute for flour that would work?
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Sorry for the wording, didn't know that these are the synonyms, I reworded it to rolling. Podpłomyk is kind of a flat bread.– d33tahCommented Jun 10, 2014 at 17:34
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What's wrong with using flour?– GdDCommented Jun 10, 2014 at 19:14
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6 Answers
You could roll it between sheets of plastic wrap or parchment paper, if you have those.
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1This is the best "no mess" approach but, in my experience, if you work your chilled dough too much, if it you let it warm up, or if it is particularly wet to begin with it will stick even to parchment paper.– AirCommented Jan 25, 2016 at 19:46
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1@Air I usually still lightly flour dough, even when working between parchment. It's not perfect, but if someone has no flour at all, I think it's their best option.– SourDohCommented Jan 25, 2016 at 19:48
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I actually have had better luck with plastic wrap - against my gut intuition! - in similar situations. I think perhaps because of its greater stretch and flexibility.– AirCommented Jan 25, 2016 at 19:51
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3@Air I'm the opposite, I find the stretch tends to work against me, but I'd imagine a lot of it has to do with rolling technique. Whichever works best for how you roll is best!– SourDohCommented Jan 25, 2016 at 19:53
Traditionally one could use a rolling pin cover and pastry cloth that have been floured or dusted with powdered starch like cornstarch. For sweet pastries you can combine cornstarch and confectioners sugar. You can also lightly oil your rolling pin and rolling board.
Other alternative rolling surfaces that are commonly used for pastry doughs include using a marble slab, a silpat mat, or plastic bag as your rolling surface
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I tried the plastic bag trick, but I had problems making it stay in place. Thanks for the oil tip, it worked great!– d33tahCommented Jun 11, 2014 at 19:40
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Another alternative, but not really is to sprinkle the dough with flour rather than your rolling surface. If the dough seems to indicate it needs a little more, flour the dough again and flip it over.– EscoceCommented Jan 25, 2016 at 14:31
You don't need flour to roll pastry, I just use kitchen roll paper placed on the top surface of the pastry, then just roll the rolling pin over the paper. It works really well and saves the mess of getting flour everywhere.
For pizza, tart, pie and even bread, if I don't want ot use flour for whatever reason I use instead semolina on the kitchen counter.
The semolina give a crustier crust but tends not to interfere with the taste of what you're cooking and stays more on the outside of the mix. It doesn't mix in so much with the dough as would flour.
For a few small pieces, if it's not a too wet or too hard dough, you can use two pieces of plastic wrap/ cling film on top and bottom and roll on it directly.
Cornstarch or fine cornmeal would work fine. You could use bisquick or something similar in a pinch, though that may have consequences.
All you're really doing is trying to keep it from sticking as you roll it out.
As you're making a dessert, you could use confectioner's sugar, but you might want to reduce the sugar in the filling slightly. Superfine sugar can also work, but you'll end up adding more sugar to the crust in the process.
Another alternative is to grate the crust using the largest set of holes on your box grater (you may need to re-freeze it for this), and then pack the shaved bits into the bottom of the pie pan, similar to how you would handle a cookie crumb crust.
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1I've grated frozen butter in while making the dough, but never heard of grating the dough into the pan. What is the effect on the finished product? It sounds like it could create an interesting and unique texture, but I imagine if you tried to press it back together to restore it to "normal" that you'd end up with an overworked crust.– AirCommented Jan 25, 2016 at 19:48