Over the years I have tried dozens of recipes for pizza dough and although some were good, none ever made me shout “fucking hell!”, none until I found this one. This is the shit right here! If you are going to try it you will need a baking/pizza stone and a peel. You could manage without the peel by getting ingenius with some parchment paper but the stone is a must. You also have to start making it the day before you plan to eat.
This makes 4 12” pizzas.
Ingedients:
4 1/2 cups all purpose flour or bread flour but why pay double? (575g)
1 3/4 teaspoons salt (12.5g)
1 teaspoon instant yeast (3g)
1/4 cup olive oil (60ml)
1 3/4 cups ice cold water (414ml)
Semolina flour or cornmeal for dusting the peel to stop the pizza from sticking to it.
1. Mix the first five ingredients together. It will give you a sticky and squishy dough. Knead it for 5 minutes. Split it in to 4 equal lumps. Spray the insides of 4 plastic storage bags with some olive oil, if you can’t spray then just put a splash in each and swoosh it around some. Put a lump of dough in each bag and tie off the top. Put them in the fridge for at least over night but up to 3 days. If you are not going to need all 4, you can stick however many in the freezer until 24 hours before you need them, at which point you can move them to the fridge.
Preheat your oven to 550°f (pretty much as hot as your oven goes!) for at least half an hour with your stone at or close to the bottom.
Put a good sprinkle of cornmeal or semolina flour on your peel. Take out your dough and shape it by hand . If you fuck it up just roll it up and have another go! I find it helps to dust my hands with some flour for this
Put your pizza base on the peel and give the top a light spray or brush of olive oil. Put your sauce, cheese and toppings on top.
Slide it off the peel on to the stone and it should be in done in roughly 8 minutes but keep an eye on it.
Take it out and let it cool for a few minutes on a rack before you cut and eat.
Lastly, send or buy be large ammounts of beer in gratitude!