Home Made Pizza – Part I (Dough)
Posted: August 11, 2011 Filed under: Recipes | Tags: dough, easy, flour, freeze, home, made, pizza, recipe, wheat 1 Comment »You and I are going to make some fresh home-made pizza. In Part I, we’ll walk through the process of making the actual dough. We’ll be done in 30 minutes, you’ll feel proud, and best of all – you will have enough for 3 whole pizzas (which you can freeze for up to 3 months). How can you beat that?
Note: I usually like to make pizza dough at least 1 day in advance during the week, or in the morning on a weekend (if I plan on making it the same day). I also freeze what I’m not using – this recipe yields 3 pizza doughs…I’ll usually make one that week and freeze the rest (separately) for next time.
Once you make it, you will realize that pizza dough is one of the simplest recipes you will ever make. The beauty of pizza making is the limitless amount of combinations. Use the dough as your canvas and let your imagination run wild. Spinach and garlic, meat-lovers, or just plain-old margherita.
Before we start, you will need a few tools so make sure you’re prepared appropriatetly (see “What You’ll Need” below). If buying these tools (listed in Parts I and II) for the first time, it will run you around $50-$75 in total. You’ll be using them for other recipes, too, not just pizza making so I think it’s well worth the investment.
step 3: mixed ingredients
step 6: dough after kneading
step 7: separate into 3 pieces
Recipe
Serving Size (3 pieces of dough, 12″ in pizzas)
Estimated time: 20 minutes (10 minutes prep, 10 minutes kneading)
Ingredients:
- 2 teaspoons active dry yeast (usually found in the baked goods section of the supermarket
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 1/2 cup hot water (100-110 F, use your thermometer for this)
- 4 cups all purpose unbleached flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup warm water
- extra flour (spread on counter during kneading process)
What You’ll Need:
- food thermometer ($5 on Amazon)
- doughs scraper ($5-8 on Amazon)
- 2′ x 2′ counter space (for kneading)
Directions:
- mix yeast, sugar and hot water in a small bowl
- wait 10 minutes until yeast is activated. you will see bubbles rise at the top of the mixture
- in a big bowl, mix flour, water, salt and yeast/water/sugar mixture
- stir with a fork a few turns until combined and water is absorbed by flour
- pour onto a lightly floured surface and knead dough for 10 minutes. here’s a good video on hand kneading.
- dough will become firmer and stronger during the kneading process
- when done kneading, shape into a cylinder (around 8″ long) and cut dough into 3 equal pieces
- place each piece of dough into a large zip-lock bag with some oil
- roll around dough to coat in oil. close bag but leave a crack open for air
- for same day use — leave dough on the counter and let rise 1-2 hours. the dough should double in size
- for use in 1-3 days — place dough in fridge. the dough will rise and eventually double in size
- for future use (up to 3 months) — follow directions above (either fridge or counter, until dough rises to 2x its original size) and then freeze.
- to unfreeze, let the dough naturally thaw in the fridge or countertop. once thawed, degas the dough (lightly squeeze, roll it) and cover it with plastic wrap (in a bowl) and let rise 1 hour.
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