I am getting the feeling yeast-dough just hates me...
I have been using a basic pizza recipe:
500g flour
1/2 cube of fresh yeast
1 1/2 teaspoons of salt.
4 tablespoons of olive oil
250ml water
- make well in flour
- add crumbled yeast and some water
- mix up a bit, dust with flour, rest 10 to 15 minutes
- add salt to remaining flour, then bit by bit add the water and mix up.
- knead for 10 to 20 minutes till it is stretchy....
It does not go stretchy, it keeps tearing.
I found advice that I don't have enough water -> so I added water.
The dough after kneading keeps returning to the previous state... but doesn't get stretchy!
How do I get the gluten freed to get the stretchy consistency it should eventually have?
It is resting (and rising) now - will kneading again after some rest and rising get me the stretchyness I would like? Have I overkneaded?
Or did SOMEthing mess up the gluten already?
PS: I am using German 405-flour, wich seems to translate to pastry flour in American types, or (the already mentioned in an answer) 00-flour in Italian types. (source)
PPS: Here are some pictures: The one on the left is the ball I get from the dough. The one on the right is what happens when I pull it apart. Click on them for full size close-up.
It should not get this tearing if kneaded properly, I believe, but stretch. Or am I misinterpreting what I see?
PPPS: as requested, more details on kneading and water:
I started out with 250 ml. Looking at my measuring cup I have by now added somewhere between 50 and 100 ml more. Strangely it does seem to make NO difference to the texture... the dough happily absorbed the additional water with some kneading.
I have been kneading by hand (embarassingly, I lost the kneading-hooks for my machine...).
What I did after getting the answer below:
Added a bit if 1050 flour (about 2 spoonfuls)
Used only about 1/4 of a cube of yeast (10g)
350ml of water (and ignore the feeling that is HAS to be too much)
Mixed up, let rest for about 10 minutes.
10 minutes kneading.
30 minutes rest and rising.
A bit more kneading.
-> Put it in the fridge for 6 hours, flattening it once.
And now I used it not to make pizza but little cinnamon-rolls (already had lunch ^^).
And they turned out GREAT, and while my dough may not have the expert-stretchyness yet, it FINALLY beats the store-bought stuff :).