Just the Best Pizza Dough
Yippeee!!! It’s PIZZA time!
I had my heart set out on cupcakes for my first ever food blog. I was torn between the cuteness of cupcakes and the yumminess of pizza. Pizza won, hooray!
Now, you may ask, why the crazies would you make your own pizza when there are so many pizza place out there who will deliver for you at the drop of a hat?
Well, you may live in a town where there is ZERO pizza visibility (yeah that’s me).
Or… sometimes…
You just like to have a say on what goes on in your pizza. The main draw for me would be this: I won’t be limited with Ham and Cheese, Hawaiian and Pepperoni pizzas only. I can now choose fresh and healthy ingredients on my pizza. The flavours are LIMITLESS!
Personally, I don’t want so many things going on in my pizza. Meat-lovers? Nah-ah, not for me. Two or three pizza topping works. I want something simple and fresh that the flavour comes thru, not masked by loads of cheese and bacon. I say ump the fresh herbs, lessen the preserved meats. Margarita? Yum! No meat but just the tastiest (if you make it the way I do of course!). I use fresh basil, can be purple or sweet, whole-canned tomatoes and mozzarella, plain and simple but “oh goodness!” I also love flavours like herbed and creamy (using coriander seeds), sundried tomato with tons of garlic, and prosciutto with burrata cheese. Anything goes, I even use fresh ashitaba leaves sometimes just to freshen things up.
A pizza is a two-part deal. The Crust and the Toppings. If you hit the crust dead-center, then you’re almost there. One rule about pizza: DO NOT USE FROZEN CRUST! You will be in for a lot of hurt if you buy this in the supermarket. However “gourmet-ish” your toppings are, it will taste bad. You’ll just be pouring your money down the drain for all those expensive cheeses that you used.
Explaining how a good pizza crust works, from mixing, kneading, resting, and shaping to the right cooking temperature is a tough job, but here it goes…
PIZZA CRUST RECIPE
(makes 3 9inch-pizza crust)
2 tsp dry active yeast
2 cups lukewarm water
2 tbsp sugar
4 tsp salt
4 tbsp olive oil
6 cups bread flour
Couple of tbsp. cornmeal (optional)
In a large mixing bowl, dissolve the yeast with water. Leave it for about 10 minutes so the yeast can do its work. Then mix and stir in sugar, salt and oil. Add in flour. Knead for about 10 minutes until smooth and elastic. Divide into 3 balls and put inside 3 separate covered containers. Let rise for a couple of hours then shape. Place on a bed of sprinkled cornmeal for crunch (optional), assemble toppings and bake for 15 minutes or until burned spots appear.
Looks simple right? It is simple enough but to get it right you need to understand the process involved together with the whys…
Mixing and stirring are easy. For the newbies in baking bread, some may experience trouble with the dough because they didn’t knead it properly. You need a lot of elbow work for this one. I have a dough hook in my mixer, but I’m afraid I’ll bust ‘em up if I use it on this tough dough. You need a low counter or table to knead otherwise you’ll get cranky the next day because of those sore arms. You have to knead them well and good until they look pretty, coz I’m telling you they look ugly to me until then.
Don't stop until it is as smooth as this.
This recipe makes 3 pieces of dough coz I don’t like my pizza thin and crispy. I like it thick and chewy with a little crunch. You can cook ‘em one at a time while chilling the others in the fridge for 10 days max. In fact, chilling them first is the next important step.
I know, I know breads are supposed to rise in a warm environment coz the yeast thrives on them. But in this instance you need the flavour more than the volume. This can only be achieved thru a slow cold rise. In other words, leave them in the fridge for at least 10 hours for the flavours to develop. Those alcoholic/acidic smell, no worries, it’s flavour.
Next comes the shaping. Practice is needed for this one. Stop dreaming about a perfect circle, imperfections makes it more rustic and real. Anyway you go about it is fine. You can even just flatten it in a rectangular sheet or pan.
Yup, almost there. After putting the sauce and assembling the toppings you now need to bake it. This is tricky because you now need it to flash and burn. Juxtaposed against the previous slow and cold rise, you now have to bake it fast and to the highest temperature your oven can take. So as you can surmise, a wood-burning brick oven is the cliché for pizza- making coz they fire up to the 800-1000 degree F (I think), and in just under 7 minutes your pizza is smokin’. Many people refer to baking pizza as grilling, this is the reason why. Now, how the hell can I do that in my cranky, old, trusty oven at home? Most household ovens can only bake until 400 degrees F. Well, it will not be as good but it’s achievable. My old lady can fire up only until 600 degrees F, and it’s already smoking at that, but the pizza still taste ahmazing. In fact I used my sister’s oven and it can only heat up until 400 degrees but the pizza came out better than ever.
So, enough said, GO MAKE IT NOW!!!
I made this with redydrated shitake, salami and crumbled feta.
the second dough turned to be tiled focaccia bread. You can drizzle olive oil and a dash of balsamic vinegar. I love putting balsamic on everything.
Still have pizza dough in the fridge? No problem, i made the last one into a breakfast pizza using free-range eggs.
That's it guys, see ya :)
