Homemade Pizza Dough
If your reservation about pizza dough is because it is time consuming, don’t worry! The dough is a breeze to make and only needs to rise for one hour. If even an hour is too much for you, make the dough in the morning and let it rise in the fridge during the day. According to Joel, rising the dough in the fridge improves the flavor!
All that will be left to do when you get home is to roll it out and top it with whatever you want! Just remember to let it sit at room temperature for a few minutes so it’s easier to handle.
You can make it with your stand mixer, with your food processor or by hand. If you’re making it by hand, then it will probably be a little more time consuming, but at least you will have amazing arms at the end! :-)
In my opinion there’s nothing better than a table full of friends, laughter, wine and pizza. Isn’t that the perfect picture of happiness?
I can’t wait to throw a pizza party with this dough! I will make the dough in advance, set a bunch of different toppings on the table and the guests will roll and top their pizzas with whatever they fancy. Some idea for toppings: all kinds of cheese, tomato sauce, sausage, bacon, pepperoni, prosciutto, ham, meatballs, tuna, bacalhau, basil, rosemary, thyme, oregano, potato, broccoli, garlic, onions, arugula, eggs, olives, kale, tomatoes, peppers, artichokes, pineapple, strawberries, bananas, Nutella, chocolate, white chocolate, dulce de leche… Seriously, my stomach just growled! lol
I seriously hope this recipe changes your life as much as it changed mine. And don’t forget: pizza stone, always! It’s the only way to achieve pizzeria quality at your own home!
And before I forget, a few considerations of this recipe:
1) Your oven has to be at its highest setting. (Mine goes up to 550F!) Pizzerias bake their pizzas at 800 degrees or more! Since most of us cannot do that at home – except my aunt with her fancy outdoor pizza oven – we need to have our ovens really hot and a pizza stone to mimic the effect!
2) The best flour to make pizza is the 00. It will give you the most perfect crunchy-chewy consistency. I like to roll my pizza very thin, but feel free to customize according to your preferences. Just be careful not to roll it too thin so it doesn’t break. (If it does, it’s okay to take pieces of dough from the edges to patch it up!).
3) The honey is the secret ingredient in this dough. It gives it so much flavor and makes the yeast very happy! :)
4) How to know the right temperature so you don’t kill your yeast? According to Chef Joel, it is the temperature of our daily showers. If you stick your finger in the water and you can’t keep it there, it’s too hot and your yeast will die… :( (Poor yeast!)
5) I used to use this aluminum net that a store seller convinced me to buy once. And then Chef Joel told me to use parchment paper only. No net! No dusting the stone with flour or semolina. You want your pizza as close as possible to the stone. My pizzas are crispier than ever now and I don’t have to taste unexpected flour/semolina in the bottom of my pizzas.! (Don’t freak out when you see the parchment paper turns brown/black! I promise you won’t set your house on fire!)
6) Always proof your yeast in a separate bowl/glass. If the yeast doesn’t proof, at least you’re only trowing away a pack of yeast that costed cents, instead of a lot of flour and other pricey ingredients!
7) If you can, please invest in a pizza peel! It makes it easier to transfer the dough to and from the pizza stone. If you need recommendations for pizza stones and peels, please click here and here. (These are affiliate links, which means that if you end up purchasing these products, I will receive a small commission! Thank you for the support!)
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Homemade Pizza Dough
Ingredients
- 1 and 1/4 cup, 10 ounces warm water (110 to 115F degrees)
- 2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast or 1 3/4 teaspoons instant, fresh yeast
- 3 tablespoons 1 1/2 ounces extra virgin olive oil, plus more for brushing
- 1 tablespoon good quality honey
- 3 1/4 cups 16 1/4 ounces 00 flour or bread flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
Instructions
- In a small bowl, add the warm water and sprinkle the yeast. Mix it well, with a spoon, so the yeast dissolves in the water. Cover with plastic wrap and let it proof for about 5 minutes or until foamy.
- Add the olive oil and the honey to the yeast and mix. Let it sit for 5 more minutes.
- In a stand mixer, fitted with a dough hook, combine the flour and the salt and mix on low, just to combine. Add the yeast mixture and turn your mixer on low speed. Once the flour and the yeast are incorporated, increase the speed and let the stand mixer knead the dough until smooth and elastic. That should take anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes. (You can also knead the dough by hand in a floured surface.)
- Shape the dough into a smooth ball and place it in a bowl greased with olive oil. Brush some olive oil on the dough as well! Cover the bowl with a damp cloth (or plastic wrap) and let it rise for 1 to 2 hours, or until doubled in size. (Alternatively, you can rise it in the fridge for up to 8 hours!)
- Thirty minutes before baking the pizza, place your pizza stone on the lowest rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 550F (500 if your oven doesn't go that high!).
- Once the dough has doubled in size, use a large knife or a bench scraped to divide it into 2 to 4 pieces.
- Knead each individual part a little bit and form them into small smooth balls. Place the balls on a lightly floured surface and let them rest for 10 minutes.
- Roll out your dough on a floured worked surface. Flatten the dough ball into a 1/2 inch thick disk and roll to a diameter of about 7 inches if you're making 4 individual pizzas or 12 to 14 inches if you're making 2 pizzas.
- Transfer to a parchment paper-lined pizza pell, drizzle some olive oil and sprinkle some salt and pepper on your pizza dough.
- Your pizza is now ready for the delicious toppings of your choosing! :)
Notes
This recipe is courtesy of Chef Joel Gamoran.
