Do you love gourmet pizza? How often do you wish you could get the same experience at home? Well, I have very good news for you. You can make dough in no time flat, seriously. If you have never tried making no knead bread or dough, this should be reason enough to give it a try. I threw some ingredients in bowl yesterday and pulled it out today to make pizza. Five minutes a day. That's it. Really.
O.K. When making the pizza it takes a couple of minutes to roll each one out. I made four individual ones. It would be much quicker if I were doing one. We really enjoy customizing our own pizza, so why not do four smaller ones? Mind you, the only one to eat their whole pizza was my fourteen year-old son. The rest of us have lunch waiting for us tomorrow.
The recipe I used for the dough is the basic dough recipe from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois. This recipe is posted all over the internet, so I don't think they'll mind me posting it again. If you like this, I highly recommend getting the book out of the library and trying a few other recipes. You will probably want to buy your own copy, like I did.
In a large container with a lid, combine the following:
3 cups lukewarm water
1 1/2 tablespoons yeast (1 1/2 packets)
1 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt
6 1/2 cups unsifted, flour. Measure it using the scoop and sweep method.
Using a large wooden spoon (or your hand) mix the ingredients until combined. Put the lid on, but not tightly. The gas from the yeast needs to escape. Let the container sit on the counter for two, or up to five, hours. Then put it in the refrigerator and ignore it until tomorrow.
When you are ready to make the pizza get all of your ingredients ready. You can use whatever you like. I usually buy a jar of pizza sauce or just use a little pasta sauce. Sprinkle your cookie sheet well with cornmeal. Turn your oven on to 500 degrees F.
Now flour a board or your counter really well. Flour the rolling pin really well. Open the container and sprinkle the top with flour really well. Now reach in and grab a blob (I get a small grapefruit sized piece for the individual pizzas). Cut the piece off with a sharp knife. Put it on the board and flip it over so it is well floured. Roll it out to the size you want. If you are making one pizza, roll it directly on the cookie sheet. Just make sure you use lots of corn meal for that. I find it works better if I start rolling and set it aside while I start the second piece. This gives the dough time to loosen and it rolls out better without pulling back.
I put two pizzas on one cookie sheet and let the kids make theirs while I roll the next two.
Into the oven the first two go for 10 minutes. While those cook we make up the second batch. Those cook for 10 minutes and we all enjoy our pizza.
See how big these pieces are? Only three of the four would fit on the plate. This was my son's plate. None of the rest of us could manage this much. He went back for piece number four. It's a good thing he has Crew practice tonight. He needs to burn off some calories.
We like to use turkey pepperoni so the pizza isn't greasy, but to each their own.
For the ingredients listed I get four individual pizzas and I have enough left to make a loaf of Artisan bread tomorrow. It can stay in the refrigerator for up to a week if I don't have time tomorrow.
Treat yourself to some gourmet pizza. You won't be sorry.
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