October 19, 2010

From the Baker's Rack: Pizza Dough

A couple of Christmases ago my friend Lisa gave me a cookbook on pizza, Pizza and Other Savory Pies. While I have always enjoyed the pie, yeast breads were still a bit new to me so the book sat on the shelf for about a year.

What a mistake!

The recipe for Thin-Crust Pizza Dough is wonderful. Very easy and inexpensive to make, and there is nothing like the joy of seeing a yeast dough actually rise like it is supposed to. This recipe will yield enough dough to make two pizzas. I usually just freeze half the dough, and the next time you are ready for homemade pizza just defrost, roll out, and bake -- no additional rise time needed. Enjoy!


Thin-Crust Pizza Dough
from Pizza and Other Savory Pies by Brigit Binns

Ingredients:
3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
¼ cup whole-wheat flour
1 package (2 ½ tsp) quick-rise yeast
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp salt
1 ¼ cups warm water (110 F), plus extra as needed
2 tbsp olive oil, plus extra as needed

Instructions:
1. Combine both flours, yeast, sugar and salt in bowl of your mixer. Using the dough hook attachment, mix until the ingredients are well incorporated.
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2. With the mixer running, add water and oil in a steady stream. Mix until ingredients form a rough mass, about 12 seconds. If dough does not form into a ball, sprinkle with 1-2 tsp water until ball comes together.
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3. Let dough rest for 10 minutes.

4. With mixer on a medium-low speed (think 2 or 4 on your KitchenAid), knead the dough for 10 minutes. Though dough should be tacky but not sticky. If you have a question of whether you should keep kneading it, err on the side of a little longer knead vs. shorter.
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6. Place the dough in an oiled bowl, turn to coat with oil, the cover with plastic wrap. Place dough in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 1/2 hours.
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7. Turn onto lightly-floured surface and shape into a smooth ball. Divide dough into 2 equal pieces. Cover both balls of dough with a clean kitchen towel and let rest for 10 minutes. You can then freeze one if you so choose.

8. Preheat oven to 450F. If you have a pizza stone, go ahead and put it in the oven now to get really hot.

9. Roll out one ball of dough to a 9-inch circle. Let rest 15 minutes.
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10. Coat fingers with olive oil, then press dough outward from center until you form a 14-inch circle of even thickness. If dough springs back, cover with kitchen towel and let it rest for a few minutes before any more coaxing.
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11. Brush dough with olive oil, then sprinkle with salt and pepper.
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12. Top with your favorite tomato sauce (I like homemade) and your choice of cheeses and toppings. (This past Saturday I made a pie with spinach, tomatoes, and feta -- yummmm).
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13. Carefully transfer pizza onto hot baking stone (or onto pizza pan if you don't have a stone), then bake for 9-12 minutes.

14. Enjoy!
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1 comment:

  1. cool! i love my baking stones...i use them for everything!

    ReplyDelete