I typed out the directions from the cook book picture that
@TnYeti posted for making the crust in case anyone wants to use the recipe. Yep, 2 years of typing in high school...it was that or take a language. I should have taken the language. Enjoy!
Pizza dough recipe
Ingredients
1 teaspoon active dry yeast
1 ¼ cups warm water (105-115)
1 cup cake flour (not self-rising0
2 ½ to 3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
Olive oil for the bowl
1. Sprinkle the yeast over the water. Let stand 1 minute, or until the yeast is creamy.
Then stir until the yeast dissolves.
2. In a large bowl, combine the cake flour, 2 ½ cups of the all-purpose flour, and the salt.
Add the yeast mixture and stir until a soft dough forms.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead, adding more flour, if necessary, until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes.
3. Lightly coat a large bowl with oil.
Place the dough in the bowl, turning it to oil the top.
Cover with plastic wrap.
Place in a warm, draft-free place and let rise until doubled in bulk, about 1 ½ hours.
4. Flatten the dough with your fist.
Cut the dough into 2 to 4 pieces and shape the pieces into balls.
Dust the tops with flour.
5. Place the balls on a floured surface and cover each with plastic wrap, allowing room for the dough to expand. Let rise 60-90 minutes, or until doubled.
6. Thirty to sixty minutes before baking the pizzas, place a baking stone or unglazed quarry tiles on a rack in the lowest level of the oven. Turn on the oven to the maximum temperature, 500 or 550 degrees F.
7. Shape and bake the pizzas as described in a recipe book we don't have. : )
TnYeti's notes:
My recipe is kinda 50/50 on flours. I was using 00 until moving back to TN, then found I like cake flour here better, along with the AP in recipe. ~2cups apiece. I go for a Chicago/tavern style crust - thin, flexible/chewy but crisper on crust, if that makes sense.
- The recipe will give you ~2 x 17" thin crusts
- You can cook after punching down the 2nd rise, or, you can cold proof in fridge overnight (folks seem to like the cold proofed a bit better, I dunno)
- Yeast, I believe is happiest 105* - 115* ; so water should be warm but not quite hot, and I briefly warm oven to let dough rise in this range
- I use a cold pan and build it then throw in oven as I am a master of burning myself on hot pans
- I usually throw ingredients under cheese, sometimes I'll put layer of motz, then ingredients under final parm dusting (I do leave raw mushrooms on top and brush lightly with EVOO)
- Once dough in pan I usually brush crust with EVOO before loading sauce/toppings; and then when done I shake a few drops of EVOO on top of cheese to help get browning
- @500* mine takes almost 20mins - pull when happy with color
- For the sauce, use whatever you normally do-I make a 30min "quick sauce" that has all the flavors I like in there - not very traditional; I adjust to taste
- And, that I think is most important - if you like something, add more of it, if you don't like something remove it. It takes a few tries usually to dial it in.
- Finally, the dough is always tricky. Elevation, humidity, temp of house, water source... everything can mess with consistency. Trial and error. Like I said, I am now back to cake flour instead of 00 since my return.
Q&A
When you put the EVOO on the crust prior to putting on ingredients, does that seem to make the ingredients slide off while eating the pizza or does it stay on?
-I just brush on a light coat on the outer crust (where you hold it), nothing should slide off. I also tend to put most things under the cheese.
I've not heard of refrigerator proofing so will dig into that a little so I have that as an option.
-This is just wrapping it in plastic wrap/in a bag and letting it sit overnight in fridge. Be aware, it will expand even in cold-I wrap with saran, then put in zipped ziplock baggie to protect dough from air.
You know...if I get good and fast at the prep part (hmm, wonder if I can freeze the dough for the second pizza),
-It isn't real fast as it needs ~3hrs to double rise, but it is worth it! Yes, you can freeze dough for awhile if you don't want to use both. I'd wrap as above before freezing.
