A few years ago, my friend Adam and I decided it was time we learned how to make pizza. Every Wednesday we would convene at my apartment, eager to wreak saucy, cheesy, cornmealy havoc on my poor kitchen. Within only a couple weeks, it became apparent that there are five items necessary for an easy, enjoyable, and successful pizza-making experience:
- A pizza stone. (I had appropriated one left behind by a housemate in a previous apartment. Score.)
- A pizza peel. (I bought one almost immediately after we attempted to use a cookie sheet as a substitute.)
- Beer. (Duh.)
- Cornmeal, to keep the pizza from sticking to the peel. (Or parchment paper! A trick I didn’t discover until recently.)
- Plastic bags and rubber bands. (To cover the smoke alarms.)
And, at the risk of sounding like a braggart, we got good. Mega-delish things started happening, like spicy eggplant parm pizza (a lot of work, but worth it). Garlicky swiss chard and goat cheese pizza (my favorite). Bacon cheeseburger pizza (everyone else’s favorite). And as proud as I was of all our creations, I harbored a secret shame that kept me from declaring myself Queen of the Stone: I did not make the pizza dough from scratch.
See, the thing about living in a place like Burlington, VT is that you have so many food-related things at your fingertips. For about $2, I could buy the house-made dough OR a local pizzeria’s dough from the store where I’d go to gather other pizza ingredients. And if they were out, the pizza place around the corner from Adam sold their dough as well. And after one attempt at homemade dough that tasted like flour-flavored cardboard, I decided I couldn’t risk ruining our delicious creations with sub-par dough (read: I had a big tantrum and gave up). But eventually my pride got the best of me, and I decided to give it another try. This time, I turned to the ever-reliable Alton Brown for the answer. Oooh, use a high-protein flour like bread flour, you say? I’m listening . . .
This recipe doesn’t exactly follow Alton’s. I use part bread flour and part all-purpose flour, as I don’t like my pizza dough to be too chewy. I also don’t add olive oil or sugar to the dough, and instead opt to brush an olive oil and honey mixture on just the crust prior to baking. And I don’t refrigerate the dough overnight, because I can never think that far ahead. But using the bread flour in the dough makes a huge difference, as the high-gluten content creates a very elastic dough. I first made this dough around a year ago, and I can’t recall a time that I’ve opted for store-bought dough since!
Pizza Dough
(adapted from Good Eats)
yield: 1 round
- 1½ cups of bread flour
- 1 cup of all-purpose flour
- 1 cup of warm water
- 1 package (about 2½ tsp) of active dry yeast
- 1 tsp salt
- olive oil (to grease the bowl)
Proof yeast in the water for about 5 minutes, or until foamy. In the meantime, sift the flours and salt together into a large bowl, and make a well in the center. Add the yeast and water mixture, and stir with a fork until the dough begins to come together.
When you can no longer stir with the fork, turn the dough out onto a well-floured surface. Knead the dough until smooth and elastic. You can tell it’s ready if it passes the “windowpane” test: Break off a small piece of dough, flatten it, then hold it up to a light or window and stretch. If you can stretch the dough thin without it tearing, it’s ready. If it rips, keep kneading. When finished, place in a well-oiled bowl.
Cover bowl with plastic wrap and allow dough to rise until doubled in size. (I actually prefer to let mine rise for about 20 minutes at room temperature, then stick it in the fridge for another half an hour. It can be a rather soft dough, and I find it easier to work with when slightly chilled.) If you won’t be using the dough right away, wrap it in plastic wrap (pre-rise) and refrigerate it for up to a week, or freeze until you’re ready to use it. It’s so simple and yummy, you’ll never buy dough again! (And bragging about making pizza from scratch = obvious bonus.)
I’ve been looking for the right pizza dough recipe. I tried a whole wheat one that, as my husband said, was adequate, but seemed almost too healthy. I’ll try this one — seems basic and simple.
It really is quite easy, and delicious! Whole wheat dough can be kind of tricky, since it has a hearty flavor and a tendancy to be rather dense, and would probably work best with equally-flavorful toppings to balance it out. (I actually made this dough the other day using half bread flour and half freshly-milled whole wheat flour, and it was very tasty, but still not quite as good.) Hope this recipe does the trick for you!
Ok, so did I ever tell you about the time (last month) when we desperately wanted pizza and didn’t want to waste any time making dough, and in homage to you, we asked our local pizza joint if they’d sell us a ball of dough? Well, they were so perplexed with the whole thing that they gave us the dough ball for free!!! A man at the counter waiting for his standard pizza was so jealous of our imminently awesome and personalized pizza. I’m wondering how many times this will work…
Haha! That is awesome. Oh the power of confusion. :) I sent Adam out to get pizza boxes from a local pizza place when I had to transport two to a birthday party. I’m pretty sure they charged him for those!
Sometimes I dream about starting an underground pizza delivery service, available only on certain days of the week. I think I’d quickly realize how insane things get when you try to cook more than two pizzas in an evening.
AHHH!! My friends and I have been doing the same thing since this time last year except on Fridays in stead of Wednesdays! We even use AB’s pizza dough!
We keep our toppings relatively simple (though you’ve inspired me to be more creative). Our favorite, however, is hashbrowns (frozen or reconstituted dehydrated) with onions and cheese. Some people think it’s absurd, but man… Delicious! Do you have a standard sauce recipe? My friends and I swear by AB’s Pantry Friendly Pizza Sauce minus the wine, plus a beer, soy sauce, worcestershire and whatever else we find appealing in the fridge/pantry. SO GOOD.
I liked this post, if you couldn’t tell :)
Oh boy oh boy, I’ve totally been thinking about trying to get potatoes on a pizza, and you’ve definitely given me inspiration! I was dreaming of a deconstructed baked potato of sorts, with chives, bacon, and cheese.
I have been meaning to try Alton Brown’s pizza sauce recipe for a while now! I’ve been putting it off because I know it will be an interesting process for me, given that I have weird consistency issues when it comes to sauces, and will probably need to blend and blend and blend until I’m positive there are no more teeny tiny chunks of anything. :) I’m able to get a really good tomato puree up here that tastes great with just some fresh herbs, garlic, and a little bit of sugar. And this might sound weird, but I’ve actually gotten into mixing the sauce with a little bit of plain greek yogurt, which compliments it in a very unusual way. (I’ll also use a little bit of greek yogurt as a base for white pizzas, and it’s super tasty.) I am definitely going to give that AB sauce a try soon—adding beer, soy sauce, and worcestershire sounds awesome. Thanks Kaitlin!!