Pizza Dough

This pizza dough can be made in 40 seconds flat using a food processor (see 2nd recipe card below), or just 5 minutes of hand kneading. It makes a pizza crust like you get at Italian wood fired pizzerias - puffy edges with a chewy crumb, enough structure so you can pick up slices rather than being a sloppy mess. But not dry and stiff like a thin cracker! Best to use weights provided, if you can.

1. Make dough & Rise 1 – make the dough, Rise #1 for 1 – 2 hours;
2. Balls & Rise 2 – form 3 balls, then do Rise #2 for 1 hour;
3. Top & bake – Stretch out to make pizza crust, spread with sauce, toppings of choice, bake 10 minutes!

Useful tip: The dough can be made ahead up to 5 days. And it can sit around for hours once the individual pizza balls are formed. So don't fret about getting the timing exactly right!

Ingredients:

• 600g (4 cups) bread flour or pizza flour (or plain/all purpose) (Note 1)
• 2 tsp (6g) rapid rise or instant yeast (Note 2)
• 2.5 tsp (15g) salt cooking salt (Note 3)
• 4 tsp (20g) white sugar
• 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 330 ml (1 1/3 cups) warm tap water (330g, Note 4)

For working:

• 1 tbsp Extra Flour
• 2 tsp Extra Olive Oil

Instructions

1. Place flour, yeast, sugar and salt in a large bowl. Mix with a wooden spoon.
2. Make a well in the centre. Pour in oil and water. Mix to bring together so it comes away from the side of the bowl.
3. Sprinkle work surface with 1/2 the Extra Flour. Scrape dough out of bowl.
4. Bring together into a ball then knead for 5 minutes until pretty smooth (Note 5). Shape dough into a ball.

Rise 1:

1. Drizzle large bowl with Extra Olive Oil (can use same bowl).
2. Place dough in, turn over and rub top with oil.
3. Cover with cling wrap, then put in a warm place for 1 - 2 hours until it doubles in size (Note 6).

Optional Flavour Development:

1. After rising, refrigerate bowl with dough for up to 5 days (do not punch down). Flavour gets better with time. (Note 7)

Rise 2:

1. Scrape dough out of bowl on work surface lightly dusted with flour. Shape into log, fully deflating dough in the process.
2. Cut into 3 equal portion - 330g each.
3. Tuck the sides under, money-bag style, so you have a smooth side.
4. Place balls, smooth side up, on a large tray - 5cm from edge of tray, 10cm from each other.
5. Sprinkle balls with a touch of flour and lightly rub to coat surface (so they don't stick to tea towel). Cover balls with lightly damp tea towel. Alternatively cover loosely with a sheet of baking paper then seal tray with cling wrap, ensuring the dough balls have plenty of space to rise under the cling wrap.
6. Leave in warm place 1 hour until almost double in size. (If fridge cold, will take 3 - 4 hours).

Stretch Pizza Base

1. Preheat oven to 275°C or as high as it will go. Put shelf in top third of oven.
2. Sprinkle work surface with 1/2 tbsp flour. Place dough on top.
3. Without touching the edges, use finger tips and back of fingers to deflate dough gently and spread out into a 20cm round. Then use your fingers to stretch the dough, working around the circle, until it's almost the size of a 30cm pizza pan.
4. Drag onto the pizza pan (or paddle if cooking on pizza stone, Note 8). Then finish stretching it to fill the pan. Leave 1cm of the edge untouched as much as possible (for puffy edges!).

Notes:

1. Flour - bread flour / pizza flour has higher protein and creates a slightly better chewy crust with some big holes aka Wood fired pizzeria style. But don't make a special trip for it - all purpose / plain flour works just fine!
2. Yeast - use yeast labelled "instant" or "rapid rise". If you can only find normal yeast (can be labelled "active dry yeast") then dissolve yeast with the sugar in the warm water (no need to let it foam, use all the water). Mix the flour and salt in a bowl, make well. Pour in yeast mixture and oil. Proceed with recipe as written. Fresh yeast - using the standard conversion, you will need 15.5g / 0.55 ounces of fresh yeast. Crumble into warm water with sugar and follow above directions for active dry yeast.
3. Salt - reduce to 1 1/2 tsp if using table salt (finer grains = less volume for same amount of salt)
4. Water temp – if it's so scorching hot you wouldn't bathe in it, it will kill the yeast. If it's a lovely temp you could sit in for hours in a bubble bath, it's the perfect temp.
5. Pizza dough doesn't need to be as smooth as other breads. Dough should be soft and a bit sticky - not so sticky it gets stuck all over your hands, but JUST enough flour so it's barely sticking to your hands. Softer dough = better pizza crust, tough dry dough = dry pizza!
6. Dough rising – time will vary depending on room temperature, humidity. Over 30°C, should rise in 1 hour. 25-27°C = 1.5 - 2 hrs. If it's not rising, move to somewhere warmer - will work fine even if it takes 5 hours to rise. Warm place ideas - run empty dryer, turn off then put bowl inside. Or oven at 30°C/86°F (no hotter, will kill yeast). Do not put in direct sunlight.
7. Fridge & flavour development: fridge = slows down yeast rising = time to let enzymes in the yeast to do their work, transforming starch into sugar which creates a more flavourful pizza crust. This dough is terrific cooked immediately once made, but gets even better with time. If possible, make dough the day before, then cook the next day. Note that the dough will likely deflate while stored in the fridge. This is not a problem! Just ensure you take the dough out ~3 hours before you plan to cook. Shape the individual balls while cold, then leave to rise in a warm place.
8. Pizza stone - preheat stone in oven. Sprinkle wooden paddle very generously with semolina (or flour or cornmeal/polenta). Slide raw pizza base onto paddle, cover with toppings. Remove hot stone from oven, then slide pizza onto hot stone. Transfer to oven immediately, cook 6 to 7 minutes.