A few months ago I posted a ‘family pizza night’ recipe/menu and while I think the toppings are still solid, I wasn’t super excited about the crust.  It worked and it’s tasty though I think it lacked that crispiness that good quality ‘pizzeria’ pizza possesses.  So, I’ve experimented, read, and chatted with some pizza makers including one in Italy that made a pretty spectacular pizza in Florence.  So, I’m going to post my new favorite pizza dough recipe.

You can still use the ingredients from my previous post.  Also, the pictures are from Super Bowl Sunday and have different toppings as an option.  The great thing about pizza, however, is that really creates a blank canvas for you and your family to use your imagination and create something all your own.  As I mentioned in the first post, pizza night is a great opportunity to get kids involved in making dinner.

So the good news is that this dough is pretty easy to make and doesn’t take a lot of effort at all.  However, the bad news is that, unlike the earlier pizza dough recipe I posted, this recipe takes 36 hours or more to make…yikes, I know.  But it’s worth it.  It takes no time at all to put together and you only work the dough for a couple minutes.  From there, you just slip the dough into a bowl and cover it with plastic wrap before placing it in the refrigerator for the 36 hours or so to rise slowly.  This develops the flavor of the crust and helps provide that crunchiness that my other recipe lacked.

Beyond the rise time, I tweaked the type of flours I used from a simple unbleached AP to a combination of unbleached AP and 00 flour.  00 flour is finely ground and comes from soft wheat’.  Most flours like AP or Bread flour comes from ‘hard wheat’ varietals.  There are a number of different types of hard and soft wheat and certainly feel free to experiment around with the various wheat types and whole grains.  00 Flour is commonly found in Italy but, while available in the US, it is certainly less common.  You can purchase 00 flour at specialty and gourmet grocery stores.  I can tell you that stop ‘n shop locally in Berkeley Heights does not carry it.  However, Kings does and it runs around 4-5 per bag and the bags are typically smaller than the large bags of AP flour that are offered.  So, it’s certainly more expensive.  The investment in making a special meal is definitely worth it in this case as it makes a world of difference.

One last note:  I know if you scroll through the site of late, it has been very heavily skewing towards Italian food.  I plan to rectify that pretty quickly with some things I’m working on right now.  So, if you don’t care for Italian food (who are you??), don’t worry…changes are coming.  If you love Italian, don’t worry.  I’m not abandoning Italian food altogether.  I just want it to be a part of what’s offered and discussed.  Anyway, stay tuned for new directions.  Until then, have a pizza night with family or friends and show off your ability to create quality crusts…it will definitely impress!

PS- this recipe can be used for flatbreads as well.  Recipe follows after the jump…

Ingredients:

200 Grams 00 flour

100 Grams Unbleached AP or Bread flour

3 Grams active dry yeast

Healthy pinch of fine sea salt

200 Grams lukewarm water

1 Tablespoons olive oil

Instructions:

• Weigh out the yeast and water and combine. Set aside for a few minutes to allow yeast to activate.
• In the meantime, weigh and combine the flours and salt. Mix well.
• Add the olive oil to the water and yeast mixture.
• Place the flour mixture in a very large bowl. Make a well in the center of the flour and pour in the water/oil/yeast mixture in that center.
• Using either a wooden spoon or a pastry scraper (I use a pastry scraper), combine the flour with the water until most if not all the flour is combined with the water and a loose dough is formed.
• Pour the dough out onto a counter or cutting board and knead for 2 minutes (I actually use a timer for this).
• Once the two minutes is complete, divide the dough in two and form dough pieces into a ball. Place each ball of dough in a fairly large bowl and cover with plastic wrap.  Place each covered bowl in the refrigerator to rise slowly for around 36 hours (doesn’t have to be exact but the Italian pizza maker told me at least 36 hours is best…and who am I to argue with that?)
• Remove the dough from the refrigerator about an hour prior to when you want to start making the pizzas.

Tips on making the pizza:

• For best results (a crisp crust, nicely browned, etc.) you are going to want to use a pizza stone.
• Set your oven or grill to the highest setting possible. If you have a convection oven, use that setting and place it on the highest heat.
• Allow for a prolonged preheating to ensure your oven is seriously hot (at least 45 minutes…an hour would be better).
• Prior to placing toppings on the pizza, once it’s sized and ready to go, lightly brush the dough all over with olive oil.
• Once the dough is brushed, work rather quickly. To help this along, have all your cheeses, sauces, and other toppings ready to be used and easily assembled so that you can move quickly and once done, immediately more pizza to the oven to cook.
• I cook my pizza approximately 10 minutes, then check on it and depending on how it looks either remove it or allow it to cook a bit longer. It will vary depending on your oven temperature.
• Once your pizza is cooked, remove it from the oven and place it on a rack to cool slightly (about 4 or 5 minutes) before slicing.