I made 3 balls of pizza dough this morning. Two for for the four of us, and one for Chris and his sister Heritage.
In the Hill House pizza is very much a nostalgic thing. Pizza means romance, comfort, love, and is always the best conclusion to a long hard day at the office. Ever since I got married I have been on a pizza mission. A pizza mission to make the best homemade pizza.
I finally found the best pizza dough recipe, and I finally figured out the whole yeast thing! I thought I would share since it only took me a year and half to figure it all out!
If I was super cool I would post pictures of the pizza dough making process. But I am at work and access to pictures and a kitchens is limited --- even on my lunch break!
This recipe is from williams and sonoma where they also sell the best pizza stones.
Here's the deal though: I use the ingredients in this recipe but I do not follow the directions.
Here are the ingredients you need:
- 2 tsp of active dry yeast, or 1 yeast packet.
- 1 tsp of sugar
- 1 cup of warm / hot water
- 2 cups of bread flour
- 1 1/2 tsp of fine salt (no kosher salt)
- 1 tbs of olive oil
Turn your water facet on to hot and let the water run until the water is hot. How hot you ask? Hot enough that it stings your finger a little when you hold it under, but not so hot that you cannot hold your finger under. In short not scalding but fairly hot. In a large glass bowl pour in your yeast and sugar, the take a cup of the hot water and very slowly pour the water in. Then take a small whisk and gently stir until all the yeast and sugar are dissolved. Then leave the yeast, sugar, and water mixture alone for TEN minutes. No longer and no less because during that TEN minutes the yeast will eat up the sugar and start to get frothy on top. If no froth appears after ten minutes then you have killed your yeast and you will need to start over. NOTE: if you follow the water facet technique you should not kill your yeast, and you should be able to dissolve it. It is a fine line folks!
After the ten minutes is over pour in your 2 cups of bread flour, then your 1 1/2 tsp of salt, and then the olive oil.
The williams and sonoma recipe says to use your kitchen aid stand mixer with the bread hook attached. But I have found that if you do this you tend to over knead the dough. What I do is just mix everything in the glass bowl with a wooden spoon. Stir until all the flour is mixed into the dough. The dough will be fairly sticky, but that is exactly what is supposed to be. Then lift your dough out of the bowl and pour another tablespoon of olive oil into the bowl. Then cover then dough in the olive oil, and then cover the bowl with a clean dish towel.
It is important that you leave the dough in a warm a dark place. Depending on how fluffy you want your pizza - let the dough rise for about 1-2 hours.
If you would like your dough sooner than that --- heat up your toaster oven -- place a towel over the top of it --- and then place the bowl with the dough in it on top of that. The dough will rise in about 45 minutes.
On a clean surface sprinkle a good handful of the bread flour and put your pizza dough on top. Carefully coat the ball of dough and begin to knead for about 2 minutes. Then roll your pizza dough out!
If you let the pizza dough rise for two hours then it will make two pizzas. If you use the 45 minute method then you will be able to make one large pizza.
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