Over the past few years I’ve tested and refined my pizza dough recipe so here it is to share. This is not your local pizza shop dough, this is tender, crisp, thin crust pizza where the crust is awesome.
This recipe is for 1 325 gram pizza crust. You can scale it accordingly.
100 grams flat, boiled then cooled, or bottled water. You do not want chlorine in the dough.
216 grams bread flour
3 grams active dry yeast
2 grams sugar
4 grams salt
Combined all ingredients less 25% of the flour in a bowl. It will be loose like pancake batter.
Let rest for at least 20 minutes so the flour hydrates.
Stir for 3 minutes with spoon in folding motion, this builds gluten and structures even though it is still loose.
Slowly add half of remaining flour while stirring, once it pulls away and forms cohesive mass turn over and empty onto counter top.
Knead for no more than 1 minute and work in remaining flour. Dough will be fairly loose and sticky. That’s ok, it’s supposed to be this way.
Let dough rest for 2 minutes on counter .
Fold dough over onto itself once, turn 90 degrees and fold it again upon itself.
Form dough into a boulle.
Store dough in lightly greased plastic container with a top. Should be 3 times dough size.
Place dough in refrigerator overnight.
The dough can be used the next day. Take it out of the fridge 1.5 hours before use and preheat your oven as high as it can go.
Carefully remove the dough from the container as not to deflate it or tear it. Press it flat gently from the center on a flour surface making a rim. That’s your crust! Gently lift the dough leaving half on the counter (deck in pizza shop talk) and turn and stretch from beneath to shape your pizza crust.
Once your dough is shaped put it on either a piehl, screen or pan that has a little corn meal on it. Ready for topping!
Note: For a quick, no cook sauce I like fresh tomatoes on the vine in the food processor, fresh basil, oregano, squeeze of lemon, splash of home made wine, pepper and salt. Pulse a few time to crushed consistency then I stain excess liquids so it does not make the pie damp. You can also add some tomato paste to thicken.
