Sadly, pizza is a staple in my diet. It’s super easy, its cheap, delicious, and you can toss whatever you have around the house on top for toppings.
This pizza dough recipe is the best I’ve ever had. Pizza dough is the support system for the rest of your pizza, so always make sure you have good dough.
If you have a nice mixer. awesome. use it. I do not have a nice mixer, so I use my hands.
In dough mixer/bowl add (in this order):
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon pure olive oil
3/4 cup warm water
1 cup bread flour
1 teaspoon instant yeast
1 cup bread flour
Mix together with a paddle attachment, or with your hands until you get a ball of cohesive dough.
Spray dough hook with oil so the dough does not stick to it, let the mixer work for 15 minutes. Or knead the dough by hand, this takes much longer.
To test if your dough is finished tear off a tiny section and spread it as though you were going to make a small pizza. Stretch the dough so thin that you can see light through it like a window, which is what chefs call a “window pane”. If the dough tears before it stretches all the way out it needs to be kneaded more.
Roll finished dough into a ball. Place dough in a stainless steel or glass bowl, coat with 3 tablespoons of oil and cover with a piece of plastic wrap.
Place in refrigerator for 18-24 hours.
After elapsed time take the dough out, bisect it, because this recipe is good for two pizzas and flatten out the dough in order to get the air bubbles out. Roll the dough back into a ball. If you want to use it immediately let the dough sit for about half an hour on the counter. If not place the two pieces of dough into individual ziplock baggies and putting it back in the refrigerator.
Again, when it comes time to make the pizza let the dough sit out on the counter for half and hour before use.
Delicious!
Courtesy of Alton Brown
Here are some of my pizzas and wacky toppings.
More on pizza to come!
