Can You Roll Bread Dough Out on Cornstarch

6 Answers 6

You could roll it between sheets of plastic wrap or parchment paper, if you have those.

answered Jan 25 '16 at 19:10

SourDohSourDoh

11.3k 1 gold badge 26 silver badges 45 bronze badges

This 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.

Jan 25 '16 at 19:46
@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.

Jan 25 '16 at 19:48
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.

Jan 25 '16 at 19:51
@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!

Jan 25 '16 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

answered Jun 10 '14 at 17:55

DidgeridrewDidgeridrew

6,948 21 silver badges 36 bronze badges

I tried the plastic bag trick, but I had problems making it stay in place. Thanks for the oil tip, it worked great!

Jun 11 '14 at 19:40
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.

Jan 25 '16 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.

answered Nov 9 '17 at 0:02

PeterPeter

21 1 bronze badge

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.

answered Jan 25 '16 at 14:24

SatanicpuppySatanicpuppy

13.1k 33 silver badges 56 bronze badges

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.

answered Jan 25 '16 at 15:32

JoeJoe

73.4k 14 gold badges 141 silver badges 407 bronze badges

I'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.

Jan 25 '16 at 19:48

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.

answered Jun 11 '14 at 16:10

P. O.P. O.

324 1 silver badge 7 bronze badges

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged substitutions flour rolling or ask your own question.

Can You Roll Bread Dough Out on Cornstarch

Source: https://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/44762/is-there-an-alternative-to-spreading-flour-when-rolling-the-dough#:~:text=Cornstarch%20or%20fine%20cornmeal%20would,as%20you%20roll%20it%20out.