Pizza is my favorite food because it can be anything you want from dessert pizza to pepperoni pizza. The flavors and combinations are endless. However, instead of buying a frozen crust at a grocery store, you can make the dough yourself. Doughs are always super intimidating but this dough only requires a few ingredients.
Ingredients:
- 306 g flour
- 2 g instant yeast
- 2 g salt
- 202 g water
- 4 g olive oil
- pinch of sugar
I recommend using a scale and not converting this to cups. Grams are more precise and I always notice a difference in my dough when I use these measurements. I have tried 4-5 pizza dough recipes and kept coming back to this one. It only requires time and delicious toppings.
Directions:
- Heat the water in a pan until warm, test with your fingers. Pour the water into a small bowl along with yeast, a pinch of sugar, and olive oil. Stir lightly and set to the side.
- In a separate bowl combine flour and salt. Create a well in the center for your yeast mixture to go. Give the yeast 5 minutes to bubble then add the mixture to the center of the dry ingredients.
- Combine for about 3 minutes with a fork or spoon, don’t knead yet.
- Set this aside for 15 minutes while you flour the counter.
- Knead the dough on the counter for 5-10 minutes until you touch it and it springs back.
- Separate into two balls and cover with Saran wrap. Leave a little room for it to grow in size and place in the fridge overnight- try to leave it at least 12-24 hours.
- Remove from the fridge at least 3o minutes before baking so that it gets to room temperature.
- Heat the oven to 425 (or the highest it will go) with the surface you will be cooking the pizza on. A pizza stone, slab, something that can withstand high heat. You can cook the pizza however you would like. I cook the crust for 2-3 minutes and then add the toppings. Cooking it until golden brown. You can add a little olive oil for color.
From Experience
For flour I recommend using bread flour or all-purpose flour, bread flour always turns out better for me but all-purpose flour is a great option as well. The water for the yeast should be warm. Not hot, not cold, neutral. If your water doesn’t need to be heated up then skip that step. Yeast likes sugar but not salt so I always sprinkle some sugar in my yeast mixture to help it along. Yes even in pizza. I have skipped this step before because we rarely have sugar in the pantry, but the yeast is happier with it. Make sure the salt is mixed into the flour well, and you can always use more or less salt than what I use. There are only a few ingredients that most people have already so preparation should be minimal. I like to do this the night before, it makes those 12 hours go by fast, then you can eat it for lunch! The texture of the dough should be sticky, so make sure you flour your fingers and the dough before putting it in the fridge. When you pull it out flour it again, there should be a lot of tiny bubbles where there is yeast production.
Cooking
I don’t have a pizza oven but I have made this recipe in one before and it makes such a big difference, pizza ovens get so hot that the crust has some beautiful bubbles and dark pieces. Yum! As for cooking in an oven, you want to get a similar experience so make sure it is the highest it can possibly go and the surface you are cooking it on should be the same. That way the bottom isn’t soggy. I use a pan with holes to better cook the pizza, but pizza stones are great because they get so hot. Toppings are another thing. Tomato sauce is an obvious choice for a pizza but can also provide unwanted juice. Pick something closer to a paste or whole tomatoes and I promise it will make it better. An alternative is ricotta for a white pizza. I like to make an olive oil rub for my pizzas because it infuses flavor into an otherwise plain crust. It’s just olive oil, salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, and garlic. But you can make this your own. Just have fun with it and enjoy!
Hadley's Hues 