The One Secret for Perfect Pizza Dough
One year my brother and I decided to celebrate our parent’s anniversary by cooking them a meal together. I insisted on it being “elegant” so we had three courses: Chile con queso with Tostitos, pizza, and ice cream. I think my brother might have made a salad. We set the table with their wedding china and silver.
It’s the first full meal I remember making. I was six or seven and my brother a couple of years older and it was definitely our dream meal. My parents were very good sports.
So I’ve been making pizza a very long time. I started with frozen crusts, and tried frozen dough, and Bisquick dough, and then many, many recipes - all before we had an internet to search. By late high school I was experimenting relentlessly.
For a long time I made the pizza crust in Rosie Daley’s In the Kitchen with Rosie: Oprah’s Favorite Recipes. I love the semolina flour in it. So then I experimented with different flours, adding a tablespoon to a 1/2 cup of rye, whole wheat, barley, etc. I devoted myself to Italian 00 flour, but like the other grains, I still couldn’t duplicate the best wood oven pizzeria pizzas.
It was after finally mastering the foccacia in Rose Levy Beranbaum’s Bread Bible that I started to understand dough better, and I simplified my recipe.
My pizza dough has FOUR ingredients: water, all purpose flour, yeast and salt.
That’s all….
So what’e the one secret for perfect pizza dough?
Time
That’s not the answer you were looking for, was it? But there it is.
Perfect pizza dough requires time. Time to rest, time to rise and build the flavors, time to relax, time to rise again.
“But I don’t have time!” I hear you saying.
But there are ways to create time.
Since I work from home, I tend to start my pizza dough around lunchtime, which is the right amount of time for the dough to develop and rise for a 6:30-7pm dinner. I’ve made it as late as 2pm and it’s worked out fine.
But you can also make the dough first thing in the morning, or the night before, and leave it to rise in the refrigerator.
If you don’t have a mixer, you can stir it by hand and refrigerate it overnight and it will do the work for you.
You can freeze the dough and defrost overnight in the refrigerator, and then bring it to room temperature before stretching.
See, not so difficult. You have the time.
You can create time.
Celia’s Perfect Pizza Crust
makes 2 16” thin crust pizzas
Ingredients:
4 cups all purpose flour
2 cups + 2-8 Tablespoons room temperature water (If you have potato water - the liquid from cooking potatoes, it’s excellent here. You can also use a couple of tablespoons instant potato flakes. I won’t tell. I buy them just for this!)
1 tsp. instant yeast
1 tsp. salt
Instructions:
Fit stand mixer with the flat beater paddle. Mix together flour and 2 cups + 2 TB. water. Let rest 10-30 minutes.
With stand mixer running on low, add the yeast. Turn the mixer up to medium (Kitchenaid 4) and beat for 7 minutes. During the mixing, the dough should be relaxed and not stiff - thicker than a batter, but thinner than many bread doughs. If it looks too stiff, add water 1 tablespoon at a time. Generally I use about 2 1/4 cups water (2 cups + 4 tablespoons), but it depends on the wheat and your humidity levels.
At the end of 7 minutes, the dough should look loose, like melted mozzarella, and be gathered around the beater.
Add the salt and mix on medium 3 minutes more. Remove the beater, scrap the dough off of it and back into the mixing bowl. Cover the mixing bowl and set aside for a minimum of 4 hours.
Spray your pizza pans and oil your hands (using olive oil on your hands will add a nice flavor to the dough). Carefully divide the dough evenly between the two pans. Gently stretch it. It should stretch only a little. It’s okay if it starts to pull back in.
Do NOT roll this dough!
Leave it. Walk away for at least 20 minutes, preferable 30+.
Re-oil your hands and gently stretch the dough. You can lift it up and put your hands underneath to gently stretch from the center. I find it easier to stretch it over the edges of the pan, and then bring up the extra dough for crust edges right before baking.
If it snaps back (and it won’t if you gave it enough rising time), walk away again and give it another 30 minutes.
Let the dough rest and rise and make beautiful bubbles while the oven preheats.
Space your oven racks evenly and preheat your oven to 450F.
Start prepping your toppings.
Bake the dough, without toppings, for 12 minutes.
Obviously these times depend on your oven. I could bake a pizza faster in my previous home when baking only one pizza in a convection oven instead of two in a regular oven.
Top the pizzas. Reverse their order in the oven. Bake for a further 12 minutes.
Slice and serve.
You’re welcome.
