How to stretch pizza dough? It’s easy with the Dome. Even thin crust pizza is easily stretched out.  You place a tiny bit of oil on the surface of the Dome and gently press and stretch the dough out from the center toward the edge. You press out with the Dome and stretch a little more with your fingers until your dough reaches the optimal diameter. Watch a demonstration of the Dome in action about 3 minutes into this video.

Once stretched, it can be a little tricky to move the dough if you have to transfer it to a preheated baking stone or preheated cast iron pizza pan,  When I make pizza, I stretch out the dough right on my steel baking pan and then add the toppings. It bakes and browns very well. I avoid wrestling a stretched out pizza dough from my work surface to a baking pan.

Cast iron or ceramic baking stones

Still, many people have pizza stones or baking pans that must be preheated before the dough is placed on them. Cast iron baking stones or ceramic baking stones are usually preheated before the pizza is assembled on them. A transfer of the stretched pizza dough to another surface is necessary. The problem is lifting it and moving it without stretching the dough further, especially with a thin crust pizza.
Taking a cue from the long-held tradition of lifting and transferring a piecrust on a rolling pin, I was inspired to try this move with a pizza base. They don’t call it pizza pie for nothing. So, I used a rolling pin to transfer a pizza dough, but discovered that the larger diameter of a two liter soda bottle works even better.

Transferring A Pizza Dough To A Different Pan

You simply place the soda bottle on the stretched out dough, roll and wrap the dough over the bottle and place it on the pan. Then you can carefully move and center the pizza base. Give it a try if you need to preheat your pizza pan.
In my experience, the best way to get a nicely browned pizza crust is to bake it at a high oven temperature of 500°F. I start preheating the oven as soon as I’m ready to stretch out the dough, because it takes my oven a while to heat up that high. After the dough is placed on the baking pan. I add my toppings, place it in my 500°F oven on the bottom shelf and bake it for 12 or so minutes. It really puffs up nicely and has a well browned bottom crust.
If all this talk about pizza is making you hungry, see my earlier post on how to make a Fabulous Thin Crust Pizza that’s ready to eat in an hour and a half.

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