I’m a big fan of pizza and have been perfecting my recipe for a long time. Still haven’t reached the ideal, but getting close with practice.
- thin crust with puffy rims that are airy, not doughy
- rustic golden brown appearance as if it came from a wood stove.
- crunchy exterior but not dry inside
- not soggy (I cannot stand pizza slices that can be easily rolled up)
- a tasteful combination of toppings, not too many, but not too little either, all of which should play perfectly together and not overpower the taste of the crust.
So far I came out with the following rules that would allow me to get closer to my ideal pizza:
1. Hot temperature in the oven. The hottest you can get. My runs at 550F max. If your oven can run at higher temperatures, you are the lucky one and I’m jealous. In the summer, we bake pizza on our Green Egg grill. It turns out almost like from a wood oven and we prefer this pizza way more over the regular oven-baked. The GE grill can run up to 750F and bakes pizzas for less than 3 minutes each. Later I’ll post another blog on how to make pizza on Green egg for those who are interested.
2. A pizza stone that should be preheated together with the oven. It redistributes heat evenly across the pizza and keeps the oven heat stable especially if you bake several pizzas in a row. It also seems to make the bottom of a pizza crunchier.
3. Convection oven mode or, if there’s none, then “bake and broil” technique. At 550F and on a pizza stone, pizza dough cooks pretty fast, 5-7 minutes. However, it may stay somewhat pale. If you bake it longer until the crust reaches golden color, the interior may turn into a crouton. So, as a finish touch I put my pizzas under a broil for half a minute until the top gets golden.
4. High water content dough. Ubiquitous “3 cups flour, 1 cup water” recipe works well for pita, but not pizza. For a good pizza crust we need at least 60% hydration. To calculate the hydration percentage, divide the weight of water by weight of the flour and then multiply by 100.
5. Homemade tomato sauce and not being lazy on precooking some of the ingredients like mushrooms and such.
As you see, despite visible simplicity, pizza is quite a complex dish, especially if you make it from scratch including the dough, tomato sauce and toppings.
Today I’ll cover the dough part.
Traditional pizza dough is made of flour, water, yeast, salt and olive oil.
I’ve tried a variety of different flours - all purpose, bread, type 00 - and of different brands. And although strong flour is important for a good crust (I mean, delicate pastry flour will definitely not be the right choice) I didn’t find _dramatic_ difference when using, say, Gold Medal all-purpose or King bread flour.
I also tried a variety of yeasts (fresh, dry, and quick rise dry) and didn’t find a dramatic difference either. But what I found most essential for a good pizza dough is water to flour ratio. A good pizza dough, the one that is crusty, puffy but not doughy and with beautiful air pockets in the rims has a high water content.
When you combine all the ingredients, the dough turns out very sticky and it’s close to impossible to successfully knead it by hand. I make the dough in my Kitchen aid stand mixer, but if you don’t have one, instead of kneading you can stir it with a large spoon or spatula. Another way to create a high water content dough is to make so-called “no knead” dough. Just keep in mind that this one should be started a day before your planned pizza party.
I’ll start with my basic quick pizza dough and then give a “no knead” version as well.
For each 12” pizza you will need:
- 1 cup all-purpose* flour (about 6 oz), last time I used Golden Medal
- 1 tsp quick rise dry yeast
- ½ heaping tsp salt
- ½ cup lukewarm water (about 4 oz)
- 2 tsp olive oil
Put flour, salt and yeast in a bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment. Stir and aerate them for several seconds on the 1st speed. Pour in water and oil and knead the dough on the same speed until it clings to the paddle.
Scrape the dough down to the bowl. Replace the paddle with a hook attachment. Knead the dough on the 2nd speed until it
Cover the bowl with a piece of plastic wrap or kitchen towel and put to the warm place. You may put the bowl into another one, filled with warm water. Let the dough rise until at least double in volume. You may start making pizza now, but I prefer to push the dough back down to its original size and let it rise another time.
When the dough is ready, scrape it out of the bowl on a flour dusted counter. Spread it slightly with your fingers and then fold like an envelope. Turn upside down and let rest for about 2-3 minutes. If you’ve made the dough for more than 1 pizza, which is most likely, divide it into individual pieces with a dough scraper or a sharp knife. Shape each into a ball, put on a flour dusted surface and cover with a light kitchen towel. Let rise for about 20-30 minutes before rolling out.
* Instead, you can take bread flour or traditional Italian pizza flour called type 00, but in this case you may need a bit more or less water than for all-purpose flour (judge by the consistency of the dough
For the “no knead” pizza dough, for 1 pizza, you will need:
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- ½ heaping tsp salt
- a tiny pinch of quick rise active dry yeast (about 1/8th of a teaspoon)
- ½ cup water plus 1 Tbsp
- 2 tsp olive oil
In a spacious bowl, stir the dry ingredients with your hand or a fork and add water and oil. Stir briefly but thoroughly so all the dry ingredients get thoroughly moist and there are no flour lumps left. The consistency of the dough should resemble that of thick oatmeal and should be as sticky too. Cover the bowl with a plastic wrap and leave on a counter at room temperature (about 66-73F) for about 14-16 hours. If it’s too hot in your house, put the dough in a garage. If it’s cold, it may take longer for the dough to develop. The dough should rise about 2.5 times of its original volume and become bubbly.
As with the quick rise dough, scrape it out of the bowl on a flour dusted counter. Spread it slightly with your fingers and then fold like an envelope. Turn upside down and let rest for about 2-3 minutes. If you’ve made the dough for more than 1 pizza, which is most likely, divide it into individual pieces with a dough scraper or a sharp knife. Shape each into a ball, put on a flour dusted surface and cover with a light kitchen towel. Let rise for about 20-30 minutes before rolling out.
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