My Version of the Ultimate Pizza Crust Take 3!
Yeah, I pooched the first one and the second one was missing something so here is the finished (base) product. Some of the recipes that will follow will have slight variations to this recipe but when I say pizza dough, I mean this recipe.
Please note the following recipe will call for whole wheat flour followed by 1 tsp salt; if you go with white flour (noooooooooooooooo) or a combination of white and whole wheat then use the following amount of salt:
All white flour – ½ tsp salt
Half white flour and half whole wheat flour – ¾ tsp salt
I say this because I have found that anything whole wheat needs a little bit more salt.
2 ½ cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp salt
½ tsp sugar
11 ml dry instant yeast (1 envelope) or two rounded tsps
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 cup luke warm water
– In a large mixing bowl combine 2 cups of the flour, the yeast, salt and sugar; mix the ingredients well.
– Make a well in the middle of the flour mixture big enough to hold the liquid. Add the olive oil and water into the well.
– With a wooden spoon slowly pull the flour mixture into the liquid. Mixing constantly until the mixture is thick enough to begin mixing by hand. Note you may need to add some of the remaining flour into the mixture; add the extra flour as you knead the dough. As you knead you will feel spots of the dough that are sticky which is when you should add extra flour to the counter and then knead over it.
– When the dough is firm and not gooey put it on a lightly floured kitchen surface and knead for 10 minutes.
(to Knead; push down on the dough with the heal of your hand, then turn the dough sideways, fold the dough in half and again push down with the heal of your hand, and repeat. Oh and now you can feel less guilty eating pizza because you are getting a little cardio as you knead the dough!).
– After kneading the dough for 10 minutes place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl and cover with a (clean) tea towel/dish rag for one hour to let the dough rise; let the dough rise on the counter top, not in the fridge.
– After an hour preheat your oven to 425.
– Place the dough on a lightly floured kitchen surface and roll it out with a floured rolling pin. Try to get the dough as thin as possible (at least ¼ inch) and place on a baking sheet or a preheated pizza stone (I just use a baking sheet; I don’t have a pizza stone).
– Once the dough is on the baking sheet prick it all over with a fork, this will keep it from bubbling up in the oven.
– When the oven is preheated bake the dough with no toppings for 12 minutes.
– Take the pizza dough out of the oven and then add the toppings as the recipe calls for and cook as per instruction.
Notes:
- Cute little side bar; did you know that tepid means luke warm? Well, totally should have googled that; it would have saved the first batch of this dough!
- This is one of the rare times you will see me adding sugar to a recipe. I did find that the second batch of the dough was missing something so I tried the next batch with sugar and it was the sugar that was missing!
- Enjoy!