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… Continue reading →