Perfection

As mentioned in the previous post I have been experimenting with making pizza dough and I think that I may have found the perfect one. It was easy to work with, nice and thin, crispy where it needed to be and most important, good flavour. I was so excited with the results that I have wanted to make pizza every night, but have resisted.

I found this recipe through Punchfork, a fantastic recipe aggregator.

Pizza Dough
Original post: My Baking Addiction
Yeild: four 1lb loaves

2 3/4  cups warm water
1 1/2  tablespoons active dry yeast (2 pkgs)
1 1/2  tablespoons salt
1        tablespoon sugar
1/4     cup olive oil
6 1/2  cups all purpose flour


Directions
1. In a large bowl add all the ingredients but the flour and mix until combined

2. Add in the flour and mix until all combined and your dough has formed. No kneading required, I promise. If mixing by hand, which I did, you will want to finish incorporating the flour by hand as it gets a bit difficult. Once a smooth dough has formed you are finished.

3. Transfer dough to a large bowl and cover. I used a metal mixing bowl and saran wrap leaving some small gaps for air to transfer. Rest at room temperature for 2 hours or so, until it doubles in size and then flattens out or collapses. For me that was about 3 hours but I did kind of forget about it.

4. The dough can be used immediately but I suggest keeping it in the refrigerator for 24 hours. This allows for the flavour to continue to develop. When ready to use, take out what you need about 1 hour before baking and allow to warm up a bit. I did find that it was very easy to roll out while it was a touch cool.

5. Keep remaining dough in the refrigerator for up to 12 days in a container that is not completely air tight, again, I used a metal bowl and saran wrap.

I halved the above recipe with no problems at all. We cooked our pizzas on a pizza stone at 475 degrees for about 6 - 8 minutes, but not entirely sure as I usually cook by sight and smell, not by the clock! You can bake these up as you would normally do, nothing special.

Last note about the pizzas, we did a basic tomato sauce, mozzarella, carmelized onions, mushroom and orange pepper topping but going forward this is perfect for a white pizza or just some pesto and toppings as you can roll out this dough very thin.

Enjoy!