Pizza Dough
Filed Under Bread, Entree, Recipe | Printer Friendly Page
Being married to a former pizza place cook isn’t easy…my husband is a pizza snob. Needless to say, we have tried just about all of the pizza places here and none have met Andy’s approval. We started to buy frozen dough from a really good bread store in order to make our own pizza (then we could blame ourselves if it wasn’t good). However, the store is not in town, and I don’t get up that way too often, so it became an inconvenience. One day I picked up the book The Bread Bible and in it, among the 600+ pages, was a recipe for homemade pizza dough. I made the recipe (only a single serving), and it was good, and over time have just added one ingredient (olive oil) and quadrupled the recipe (we use half and freeze the rest). This really couldn’t be easier, and, if you are like us, you won’t want to buy frozen or delivery pizza ever again – this tastes better and is a lot less expensive!
Ingredients:
- 3 cups plus 4 tablespoons Unbleached Flour
- 2 teaspoons Sugar
- 1 package Active Dry Yeast
- 2 teaspoons Kosher Salt
- 1 1/3 cups lukewarm Water
- 1 tablespoon plus 1 tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive oil
Combine the flour, sugar and yeast and stir. Add the salt right before you are ready to add the water, as salt can kill the yeast. Make a well, and pour the water and one tablespoon olive oil into the well.
Stir with a wooden spoon until the dry ingredients and wet ingredients are fully incorporated together (I start with the wooden spoon and then use my hands). Form into a ball and put the other tablespoon of olive oil into the bottom of the bowl. Rub the oil on the entire ball of dough, place back into bowl and cover with plastic wrap.
If you are using the dough within four hours, let sit out to rise. Otherwise, put it into the refrigerator. Once you are ready to use it, preheat the oven to 450 degrees, separate the dough that you need, and work the dough back into another ball and let it sit covered for 15 minutes to allow it to rise again.
Liberally flour work surface and roll out dough into desired shape/thickness. Add sauce and toppings, bake and enjoy!
I love homemade pizza…my mom always made it while I was growing up and I became a bit of a pizza snob myself. I’m never completely happy with delivery or frozen pizza’s. Your pizza looks great, I’ll try the recipe next time I’m in the mood for homemade pizza.
meeso’s last blog post..Padma’s Lamb Curry
I have this book too but haven’t tried their pizza dough recipe yet. I’ve been experimenting with the book called, American Pie, and have loved the results so far. My husband LOVES California Pizza Kitchen’s pizza and I’ve been trying to duplicate that sweet dough taste. No so much luck.
Beautiful pizza! I confess that with good, fresh, locally made pizza dough available in every Rhode Island market (we are so Italian here), I rarely make my own pizza dough, but when I do, I know it makes the best pizza.
Homemade pizza is the best. I’d love to know all the secrets of making the perfect dough!!!!
Valli’s last blog post..Rustic Pork Roast with Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes, an Award and a Rambling
thanks for this! I printed it out for my missus.
hmmm, pizza maybe this weekend for me
Andy Bailey’s last blog post..CommentLuv gets CommentSmothered!
hey, the recipe looks perfect! I made whole wheat pizza dough myself sometime back and blogged about it…but yours is extra special, and you’ve learned it from an insider, huh!?:)
Mansi’s last blog post..Peach Malai (Cream) Sandwich with Kulfi on the side
Ok, you’ve got me, I’m definitely making this recipe a keeper.
Question, what other things can I make with this dough?
Thanks for the comments everyone. Cynthia,
Andy will be posting a rolled stromboli recipe either today or tomorrow. Also, in the past we have rolled out smaller pieces of the dough, put some olive oil on them and grilled them (only takes a couple of minutes). Langos (langoosh), a Hungarian fried bread, is made by frying pieces of the dough in oil, then sprinkling with garlic powder (you could also put cinnamon sugar on for a dessert).
kris’s last blog post..Pizza Dough
The Pizza looks perfect! I have also always been trying to make a pizaa from the scratch at home. Thnx for the recipe..
Mona’s last blog post..Sheekh Kababs
Love your pizza, Kris. And I love the updates on your website. I learn all I know about cooking from you guys.
I’m a little late on this post, but I had to say this is very informative. As For The Best Pizza Sauce For Homemade Pizza.Thats what I’m looking for now.
Great Site
I see that you mentioned the temp but what about cook time? I’ve read That I should go and buy a pizza stone. Is it necessary? Do you use a specific type of cheese, I mean is there one that really stands out as being better than the rest?
Chris, I’ll need to post up a full recipe for actually making the pizza but in a nutshell:
The time is going to depend on how thick and how big your crust is how many toppings you put on it. Generally about 12 – 14 minutes. I have used a pizza stone in the past and they are nice but not necessary. If you have a heavy duty cookie sheet (not one that will warp after it gets to hot) that will do just fine.
As for cheese, mozzarella is king. The fresh stuff is great but it tends to weep out excess water which can make things soggy. If it is used just use a little but of it. I like to use about 80% mozzarella 20% cheddar. The pre-shredded stuff is normally not as good as what you may buy in a brick , more expensive and can contains other additives for preserving and anti caking. This will all depend on what brands you buy of course. We normally use a local Wisconsin cheese.
This was the best home-made dough I’ve ever made, and it made enough for three pizzas. The dough kept well in the fridge for three days and I was able to have three delicious meals! Great recipe, thank you!
Gorgeous pizza! I should have know better than to look at this post while hungry!
OrganicallyTv’s last blog post..A humorous and eye opening short film about plastic bags
Great pizza! I want to it my monitor
Ketty’s last blog post..Russia underlined its right to a “preventive” nuclear strike
Nice job! I love it when people experiment so they get the results they enjoy. I make a NY style thin crust pizza. I, too, am fanatical about the taste and texture of my crust. I have found that if you cold proof the dough, the flavor really comes through compared to just using the freshly made dough.
what does “cold proofing” dough mean? this recipe looks really good! and i would love to use it!
Cold proofing is letting the dough rise in your refrigerator. It takes about 12 hours vs about 4 at room temp. Cold proofing is a great technique and I have had fantastic results with it but you just need to plan a little but more ahead.
I tried this recipe, followed it, and it was the most bland pizza dough I have ever had.
I’ll have to give this a shot! Still experimenting with vegan pizza made from scratch. A reminder, though, that my friend Dave is opening a new gourmet pizza place west of the mall in Appleton called the Wild Truffle. Opens in two weeks. I guarantee it’ll be the best pizza you’ve tasted in the state of Wisconsin…
Ken, for sure we’ll check out that new pizza place when it opens.
Hi Kris,
I’m loving pizza such the one we can see on your picture. Thanks a lot for giving us your recipe, but as a french, I don’t know the capacity of a cup, would you please tell me how many grammes does a cup contains ?
Thank you.
Romain
Romain, It’s tricky because a cup is a measurement of volume where a gram is a measurement of weight. It comes out to about 125 grams of flour per cup. So … 3 cups plus 4 tablespoons of flour should be about 406.25 grams.
Thank you Andy
Just made 2 batches, – 3 small deep dish pizzas, 3 Calzones, 1 Stromboli. Easy and tasty, thanks Caters.
I just made this tonight, and it’s going to replace the other recipe I had, which was good, but this nis great. Thanks a bunch