What a treat—hot homemade pizza, with exactly the
toppings you like. And this crust adapts to YOUR schedule: make the
dough now, and serve fresh pizza up to 2 days later. Please read this
recipe all the way through before starting. It gives you a lot of baking
options, and you want to choose the one that best fits your schedule.
Our guarantee: This flavorful pizza crust is crisp when rolled ultra-thin, and chewy when made thick.
- 2 teaspoons active dry yeast or instant yeast
- 7/8 to 1 1/8 cups lukewarm water*
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 3 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
- 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
- *Use
the lesser amount in summer (or in a humid environment), the greater
amount in winter (or in a dry climate), and somewhere in between the
rest of the year, or if your house is climate controlled.
Directions
1) If you're using active dry yeast,
dissolve it, with a pinch of sugar, in 2 tablespoons of the lukewarm
water. Let the yeast and water sit at room temperature for 15 minutes,
until the mixture has bubbled and expanded. If you're using instant
yeast, you can skip this step. |
2) Combine the dissolved yeast (or the
instant yeast) with the remainder of the ingredients. Mix and knead
everything together—by hand, mixer or bread machine set on the dough
cycle—till you've made a soft, smooth dough. If you're kneading in a
stand mixer, it should take 4 to 5 minutes at second speed, and the
dough should barely clean the sides of the bowl, perhaps sticking a bit
at the bottom. Don't over-knead the dough; it should hold together, but
can still look fairly rough on the surface. |
3) To make pizza up to 24 hours later, skip to step 5. |
4) To make pizza now: Place the dough in a
lightly greased bowl, cover the bowl, and allow it to rise till it's
very puffy. This will take about an hour using instant yeast, or 90
minutes using active dry. If it takes longer, that's OK; just give it
some extra time. |
5) To make pizza later: Allow the dough
to rise, covered, for 45 minutes at room temperature. Refrigerate the
dough for 4 hours (or for up to 24 hours); it will rise slowly as it
chills. This step allows you more schedule flexibility; it also develops
the crust's flavor. About 2 to 3 hours before you want to serve pizza,
remove the dough from the refrigerator. |
6) Decide what size, shape, and thickness of pizza you want to make. This recipe will make one of the following choices:
Two 1/2"-thick 14" round pizzas (pictured);
Two 3/4"-thick 12" round pizzas;
One 3/4" to 1"-thick 13" x 18" rectangular (Sicilian-style) pizza (pictured);
One 1 1/2"-thick 9" x 13" rectangular pizza;
One 1"-thick 14" round pizza.
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7) Divide the dough in half, for two pizzas; or leave it whole for one pizza. |
8) If you're making a rectangular pizza,
shape the dough into a rough oval. For a round pizza, shape it into a
rough circle. In either case, don't pat it flat; just stretch it briefly
into shape. Allow the dough to rest, covered with an overturned bowl or
lightly greased plastic wrap, for 15 minutes. |
9) Use vegetable oil pan spray to lightly
grease the pan(s) of your choice. Drizzle olive oil into the bottom of
the pan(s). The pan spray keeps the pizza from sticking; the olive oil
gives the crust great flavor and crunch. |
10) Place the dough in the prepared
pan(s). Press it over the bottom of the pan, stretching it towards the
edges. You'll probably get about two-thirds of the way there before the
dough starts shrinking back; walk away for 15 minutes. Cover the dough
while you're away, so it doesn't dry out. |
11) When you come back, you should be
able to pat the dough closer to the corners of the pan. Repeat the rest
and dough-stretch one more time, if necessary; your goal is to get the
dough to fill the pan as fully as possible. |
12) Allow the dough to rise, covered,
till it's noticeably puffy, about 90 minutes (if it hasn't been
refrigerated); or 2 to 2 1/2 hours (if it's been refrigerated). Towards
the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 450°F. |
13) Bake the pizza on the lower oven rack
till it looks and feels set on top, and is just beginning to brown
around the edge of the crust, but is still pale on top. This will take
about 8 minutes for thinner crust pizza; about 10 to 12 minutes for
medium thickness; and 12 to 14 minutes for thick-crust pizza. If you're
baking two pizzas, reverse them in the oven (top to bottom, bottom to
top) midway through the baking period. |
14) To serve pizza immediately: Remove it
from the oven, and arrange your toppings of choice on top. Return to
the oven, and bake on the upper oven rack for an additional 10 to 15
minutes, until the crust is nicely browned, both top and bottom, and the
cheese is melted. Check it midway through, and move it to the bottom
rack if the top is browning too much, or the bottom not enough. |
15) To serve pizza up to 2 days later:
Remove the untopped, partially baked crust from the oven, cool
completely on a rack, wrap in plastic, and store at room temperature.
When ready to serve, top and bake in a preheated 450°F oven, adding a
couple of minutes to the baking times noted above. Your goal is a pizza
whose crust is browned, and whose toppings are hot/melted. |
16) Remove the pizza from the oven, and
transfer it from the pan to a rack to cool slightly before serving. For
easiest serving, cut with a pair of scissors.
This was definitely a favorite at our house. The only downside is the rising time. We loved the flavor and the texture. I made it whole wheat and I could hardly tell in the pizza. I will definitely make it again, but I might make a big batch and freeze some so I only have to go through all that rising time once.
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Recipe summary
-
Hands-on time:
- 20 mins.
-
Baking time:
- 18 mins. to 30 mins.
-
Total time:
- 3 hrs 8 mins.
-
Yield:
- 1 or 2 standard round pizzas, or 1 large rectangular pizza, about 12 servings
Tips from our bakers
- Make pizza any shape or size or thickness you like; the
above guidelines are simply suggestions. Understand that the
thickest-crust pizza will need to bake longer than the thinnest-crust
version.
- To freeze partially baked pizza crust: Bake
crust as directed in step 13. Remove from the oven, cool to room
temperature, wrap well, and freeze for up to 3 months. When you're ready
to serve pizza, remove the crust from the freezer, and allow it to
thaw, loosely wrapped, at room temperature. Once it's completely thawed,
complete pizza by starting at step 15 above.
- What else can you to with this tasty crust? How about fresh, hot cheese stuffed bread sticks? Our step by step blog will show you what pitfalls to avoid on your way to these pizza shop favorites.
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We will have to try this one because after what feels like a million tries we still haven't found a recipe that is like what Ben had in Italy.
ReplyDeleteWell, I can't promise it will be authentic Italian...
ReplyDeleteThat's a lot of steps, but I'll probably try it.
ReplyDeleteI still have a pizza stone here that you can have. You can take it back with you whenever you come visit. Baking pizza on a pizza stone really does make it better.
ReplyDeleteI made this but didn't do the second rising time. It was still fine. If I let it rise another 90 minutes I feel like it would have been bread with pizza toppings on top, not a crust for the pizza.
ReplyDelete