The Bread Bible’s Pizza Dough

I love pizza. Plain and simple, I love it. Cold, hot, room temperature, breakfast, lunch or dinner, it doesn’t matter. As an undergraduate, when I had meals at the dining hall, where they had this terrible bland thick-crusted pizza, I had a slice at every meal (well, except breakfast but I wasn’t awake for that). I even used to make frozen pizza every now and then; though it never tastes as good I still enjoyed it. (And yes that is why I own a pizza stone.) That was until my girlfriend made me pizza using the Trader Joe’s dough, which always seemed to turn out really good. So suddenly I was making the rest of the pizza, might as well make the dough too right?

Here is the secret - Pizza Dough is simple, and easy. Having made focaccia in the past and knowing it’s similarity to pizza, I had a distinct expectation of the simplicity. And this recipe, not only is it easy but it allows for variations and substitutions. In both of my attempts at this, my crusts turned out exactly as I hoped. And both times I substituted a half of a cup of whole-wheat flour and added herbs. The first time with I added basil and rosemary, the second time oregano and rosemary.

The first pizza dough I made I split in half, made one pizza and froze the rest of the dough (making a second pizza a week or two later). Both of the pizza’s I made with this dough (the basil rosemary) were the American standard (sauce and shredded mozzarella and various toppings). Both the fresh and frozen dough performed perfectly and more or less identical. I did make the initial mistake of putting the pizza on the bottom rack, which crisped the bottom too much. The middle rack gave far better results. And I also think brushing the dough with olive oil first added to the flavor a little. These were both made in an old gas oven (the same as the rest of the breads in this blog) directly on a pizza stone.

The second pizza dough (the oregano rosemary) was made in the Italian tradition of a Margarita pizza. After brushing the dough with oil mixed with fresh basil and garlic, I placed slices of fresh mozzarella and tomatoes over the surface, and after it was done baking I garnished with fresh basil leaves. I personally wish I had made a full pesto for brushing the dough and hadn’t forgotten to add the Romano cheese to the top before baking. This was baked in a new convection oven on a cookie sheet.

In every case the pizza itself was more of an artisan style than a pizza saloon style pizza. So the crust was thinner and crisper, but that is partially due to the difference in ovens that makes it virtually impossible to duplicate a pizza saloon style of crust. Even with this difference, not only were the results delicious, I got rave reviews every time I made the pizza. And personally, I am still impressed at how well the pizza dough performed each time, under different circumstances and in different ovens.

From: The Bread Bible: 300 Favorite Recipes

Difficulty: easy

Tips:
1) Generously flour the pan/stone you plan on using with corn meal. Though it tends to smoke a little in the oven, it ends up coating the base of the pizza really adding to the flavor.
2) If you plan on letting your dough rise in the refrigerator overnight, make sure you give it ample time to warm the next day before you begin working with it. I have found it can take as long as 1-2 hours to reach room temperature.
3) In order to get the classic rim of risen crust around the outside, when you stretch the dough, leave a rim of dough that is slightly thicker. When you build the pizza, leave the rim untouched so that it can rise.