Foo - Pizza Dough

4 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour, chill it first!
1 teaspoon of instant yeast
1 3/4 teaspoons of salt
1/4 cup (2 ounces) olive oil
1 3/4 cups ice cold water, though start with a bit less and add as needed

Mix the ingredients in a bowl. You want the dough to almost be too tough to mix. It should be quite sticky. Let the dough sit for a while in the fridge before working it out; anywhere from several hours to overnight is good.

You can cut this recipe down a bit, as this will make several LARGE pizzas. Or you can use the measurements above and divide it up. I usually split it up into fourths. Once you have it cured for a while, divide it up into equal chunks. Dust your breadboard (or counter top) with either flour or cornmeal, and keep your hands dusted too. Take your ball of dough and knead it like you really mean it. You want to really get a physical workout here! Pull, stretch, and bang away on it (yeah, feel free to enter your favorite sexual innuendo). Press it out into a circular from and with a dusted rolling pin, roll it out to the size desired. Because of the yeast, it will expand to a pretty thick crust.

Pre-heat a pizza baking stone in the oven, and get it really hot...500 degrees or better if you can. You can use a pan, but the stone will improve your crust like you can't imagine...go buy one! Dust your stone with cornmeal or flour, and lay the crust on it. Top with tomato sauce and your favorite cheese and toppings. I am a sucker for pineapple with bacon bits and then decorated with anchovies. Place into a hot oven...400 degrees is not really sufficient, so if you can crank it up to 500 or 550 even, so much better. Cooking time will depend on the heat and the amount of dough and toppings. Keep checking and use your intuition. 8-12 minutes is typical. You can experiment with different placements of your oven rack height if the cheese seems to be cooking faster than the dough.

Remove from oven and wait several minutes before cutting, as it helps the cheese and topping "set up" and will make slicing easier. Enjoy, and tell the kids I told you how to do it. They will never want to order from Domino's again!

Sounds yummy! I spread a bit of olive oil on the crust before adding toppings to minimize the dough from soaking up the sauce.

Oooh, thanks!

My idea of pizza dough is about $14 spare cash.

These people take their pizza dough abit too seriously....

YouTube- Pizza: The Movie

You can also use beer instead of water, gives it a nice taste. Good way to get rid of the skunked stuff in your fridge, too. I make my dough in a breadmaker cause I'm lazy :).

might wanna try it with bread flour aka high gluten flour......that's what we used in the pizza biz

maybe substitute one cup of white flour with a cup of red wheat flour too

your are right about the heat too, most home ovens don't get anywhere near hot enough, you really need a stone and 600F+ and adjust to your dough according to whether it's a cracker style crust or a thick and chewy bread kind of crust

mixing the yeast with cold water probably isn't the best idea either, probably slows down the process, might even kill the yeast

1. I need to avoid salt, is it just for taste?
2. I have a piece of granite counterop about 15 inches in diameter. Can this be used as a pizza stone?

Salt inhibits the yeast from going berserk and taking over your kitchen, IIRC.

I wouldn't use granite unless it was specifically designed as a cooking stone. Don't know what the resin in a counter-top grade granite would do at high temperatures.

You can also use beer instead of water, gives it a nice taste. Good way to get rid of the skunked stuff in your fridge, too. I make my dough in a breadmaker cause I'm lazy :).

I'm judging you for the fact that you neglect your poor, lonely beers that want nothing more than to comfort you in sorrow, celebrate with you in joy, and be your stomach's dear companion for all times in between long enough for them to become skunked.

:notamused:

Salt inhibits the yeast from going berserk and taking over your kitchen, IIRC.

I wouldn't use granite unless it was specifically designed as a cooking stone. Don't know what the resin in a counter-top grade granite would do at high temperatures.

You can reduce the amount of yeast a little bit if you leave the salt out. Maybe 2/3 as much? Experiment and see what you get.

I agree with not using the granite as a pizza stone. Improper objects can fracture from thermal stresses. Also, some rocks absorb water that may boil and cause it to actually explode. Very low risk, but not something I'd want happening in my oven.

Pizza stones aren't too expensive, but you can always just bake on a cookie sheet. The texture will be a little different, but the flavor should be the same.

I'm judging you for the fact that you neglect your poor, lonely beers that want nothing more than to comfort you in sorrow, celebrate with you in joy, and be your stomach's dear companion for all times in between long enough for them to become skunked.

:notamused:

Hey, it's the stuff my friends leave at my house (Sleeman's Honey Brown, at the moment.) It's in clear glass bottles so it gets funky pretty quick, if it's not funky already. I only buy beer in brown bottles/cans, and it doesn't last too long around these parts. :D Although my sister made a mean pizza with a bottle of Monty Python and the Holy Ale that I got as a joke gift.

might wanna try it with bread flour aka high gluten flour......that's what we used in the pizza biz

mixing the yeast with cold water probably isn't the best idea either, probably slows down the process, might even kill the yeast

My local Italian grocer sells Caputo pizza and pasta flours, from Naples, which are a little lower gluten than bread flour (I think Caputo pizza flour is 11-12 percent). Seems to work fine.

Cold water probably won't kill yeast, which can survive freezing. On the other hand, I can't think of a good reason to chill everything that much--it's true, you won't get much yeast action that way.

If you're in Canada, 'bread flour' is 'all-purpose flour' (unless you're in a specialty store, I guess.)

Salt inhibits the yeast from going berserk and taking over your kitchen, IIRC.

I wouldn't use granite unless it was specifically designed as a cooking stone. Don't know what the resin in a counter-top grade granite would do at high temperatures.

salt reacts with the gluten in the flour and helps the whole thing stick together and helps give it its texture and stretchy properties, it will work without salt but won't be quite as cohesive, the gluten does most of it

you can alter the amounts of the ingredients and make it act differently:
sugar is what makes the dough brown when cooked, but small changes in amounts make a sizable difference and there is a limit to how much sugar you can use before it adds no extra browning, type of sugar too

that's why dough that has been around awhile like near the end of a batch won't brown like it does when fresh, the yeast eats the sugar up as it sits there lowering the sugar content as it rises

adding oil or shortening or butter will make the crust flakier but also not taste or feel as good when cold, think day old cold biscuits

making bread or dough is as much an art as anything else

^stop knowing stuff :p

(seriously, that's good info, Thanks!)

I got one of these for my birthday this year:
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/313ta7EP-vL._SS500_.jpg
Excellent for placing and retrieving pizzas from the preheated stone.
I receive far fewer burns now.
Whole wheat/semolina/white flour mixture FTW.

Seems there was an entire thread on pizza dough/crust recipes a few years ago.