PIZZA

My true love. Pizza. This is a work in progress recipe for 2 10-12 pizzas.

Reference: this recipe

Ingredients

Crust:

• 1.5 cups (355 ml) warm water (105°F-115°F)
• 2.25 teaspoons (12g) of yeast
• 3.75 cups (490 g) bread flour
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (omit if cooking pizza in a wood-fired pizza oven)
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar

Make the Crust

If you’re using active yeast, you need to “proof the yeast” — soak it in hot water for 5 mins. If you’re using instant yeast, go directly to the next step — add the yeast to the dough mix.

First, mix all of the ingredients into a bowl. Mix well. If you have a mixer, that’s probably best. Use the attachment with the hook. If you don’t have a mixer, just knead directly by hand.

The dough should be a little sticky, or tacky to the touch. If it’s too wet, sprinkle in a little more flour.

Coat the inside of a bowl with olive oil, put the dough ball into the bowl, cover with plastic.

Let the crust rise

You need to let the pizza dough rise in order to be usable for the crust of the pizza. Let the yeast do its magic.

The options for this:

• Quick, dirty rise: 1-1/2 hours in a warm place
• Medium rise: 8 hours in room temperature place
• Long rise: 24 hours (maximum) in the refrigerator.

The longer you let the dough rise, the better the flavors.

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Now that you have dough (good job), let’s discuss how to cook the dang pizza.

Prepare the toppings

This is open-ended. Use whatever you want on top of the pizza, it’s truly a freestyle artform.

Recommended:

• Mozzarella cheese
• Tomato/marinara sauce
• Basil
• Tomatoes
• Salami
• Not fucking pineapple
• etc.

About 1/3 cup of tomato sauce and cheese is enough for one pizza. Don’t put too much stuff on, lest the pizza be not crispy.

Prepare the oven

Preheat the oven to 475 degrees fahrenheit//247 degrees celsius.

Prepare the dough

Regardless of your chosen dough-rising strategy, your dough should be a big ball of gluten at this point. Flour up your hands, press it down a bit to get some air bubbles out, then break it into two halves. Put each half in a bowl, cover, and let sit for 15 mins.

Take one ball of dough and flatten it with your hands on a lightly floured work surface.

Starting at the center and working outwards, use your fingertips to press the dough to 1/2-inch thick. Turn and stretch the dough until it will not stretch further.

Let the dough relax 5 minutes and then continue to stretch it until it reaches the desired diameter - 10 to 12 inches.

You can also hold up the edges of the dough with your fingers, letting the dough hang and stretch, while working around the edges of the dough.

Lastly, you need to remove air bubbles from the dough. You can use a dedicated tool, or you can make some dents with a fork. Whatever it is, it’s not a big deal.

Cook the Pizza

Brush the top of the flattened dough with olive oil. Add your toppings.

If you are fancy and talented, use cornmeal on all surfaces to act as little ball bearings when you insert and remove the pizza from the oven.

Lastly, slide that baby right in that hot oven and cook for 10-15 minutes until the cheese/crust is brown!