The very first thing I ever learned to cook was pizza. I started around grade 8 and spent the next 472 years trying to perfect it. I'm about halfway there.
The first big breakthrough I had was years ago when I started to BBQ my pizza. Then I decided I'm an all or nothing kind of person and built my own wood fired pizza oven. Don't scoff, it's actually easier than you think.
Finally, after realizing that maybe not EVERYONE wants to build their own wood fired pizza oven, I should probably really figure out how to make pizza at home in a regular oven. If you don't happen to have an outdoor pizza oven, s soon as you make this dough I want you to read this post on making perfect pizza in your home oven. If you're a pizza enthusiast that one post will change your pizza life, I promise.
If I hadn't figured out that a BBQ produces a really great pizza, I'm sure I would have built a pizza oven by now with random things from my shed. Leftover patio stones, some plastic pots and half a bag of solidified Miracle Grow.
Anyhow ... I'm rambling. As you may know I got the Earth to Table cookbook for Christmas and I've been trying out recipes since I got it. The first recipe I had to try was pizza dough. I've tried a few homemade pizza doughs in my time but none of them seemed any better than that big blob of dough you can buy in a plastic bag at the grocery store. The faux dough. So I've always used the gloppy dough from the grocery store to mixed results. Sometimes it's O.K., other times I roll out the dough to a 9 " circle r and by the time I grab my sauce the dough has reverted to a 3" circle. And it's smirking.
So I was pretty excited to have a promising pizza dough to try out. Nothing gets me more excited than the possibility of coming to the end of my quest for the perfect pizza. Except maybe a new episode of Modern Family.
So on New Year's Eve I opened the cookbook and gave it a shot. Sure enough the recipe was a complete and utter success. It was perfect. The dough was perfectly crisp on the outside and light on the inside. (not gummy ... sometimes the grocery store glop is gummy inside for some reason) I ate so much I cursed the dough, the pizza, the cookbook, the recipe, Jeff Crump, the fella, my cats and my 3rd grade teacher. I felt kindda sick. Totally my fault. (and the fault of the dough, the pizza, the cookbook, the recipe, Jeff Crump, the fella, my cats and for some reason ... my 3rd grade teacher.)
After I calmed down and digested a bit I knew I had to let you all in on this recipe, so I stood on my porch and screamed at Jeff Crump. HEY!!!!! JEFFF!!!!!! CAN I PUBLISH YOUR PIZZA DOUGH RECIPE???!!!! I didn't hear a "No." back, so I figure, we're good.
Gather your ingredients.
Notice my local honey? It's my pal Russell's honey. No wait ... it's his Uncle's honey. I already ate all of Russell's honey.
Combine flour, yeast and salt in stand mixer.
(If you don't have a stand mixer, use a Cuisinart or mix the ingredients in a bowl by hand with a wooden spoon)
Add one cup of water, oil and honey. Mix with flat beater on low speed until combined.
Remove flat beater.
Add dough hook.
Gradually add the remaining water (you may not need to add all of it) while continuing to mix on low speed. When dough pulls away from sides of bowl and hangs off of hook, you're done.
(Again ... just mix by hand with wooden spoon until dough forms into ball)
Knead dough until it's smooth and elastic. About 3 minutes.
Place in a large greased bowl, turning dough so it's greased all over. Cover with damp towel and let rise for about an hour or until ...
it's about doubled in size. Ta da.
You can either divide the dough in half for 2 normal sized pizzas, or you can divide into 4 for individual sized pizzas.
Work each ball of dough by pulling down the sides and tucking them under the bottom a few times.
See all that stretched gluten? That's what you're lookin' for.
Roll the dough under the palm of your hand until smooth.
It should be soft and smooth and perfect feeling. If you've fallen in love with your ball of dough, you've done it right.
They will be 4 little things of beauty. That need to be protected.
At this point you can either freeze your dough, refrigerate it for use the next day or GET READY TO MAKE PIZZA RIGHT NOW!!!
If you plan on making pizza right away, then cover the dough up with a damp towel for 15 - 20 minutes and let it rest.
Once you've done that, you can roll it out and make your pizza.
As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, I BBQ my pizza all the time now. I bought a couple of non stick pans for the job. They're just circular pans with holes all over the bottom to allow the bottom to crisp up. You can read my entire post on BBQ pizza here (it's kind of a love story not unlike Pioneer Woman's Marlboro Man story, only there's more swearing and a monster involved) or I can give you the quick version.
Preheat your BBQ to HOT. As hot as possible. 500 degrees at least. Make your pizzas on their pans and then put them on the BBQ. Close the lid immediately and turn the burners down to medium or medium low so you don't burn the crusts. Leave them for 8 - 11 minutes depending on how hot your BBQ gets. Remove the pizzas and then stick them under your broiler for a few minutes to get a bit of crisping on the pepperoni and some browning on the cheese.
A flavour the fella gets when we go to Jeff's restaurant "Earth to Table, Bread Bar" is bacon, scallions and goat's cheese pizza. It's DELICIOUS. Just not as delicious as a classic pepperoni, which is always my choice. (when I make it at home I add fresh basil leaves after it's removed from the oven)
So, the quest for the perfect pizza is almost complete. I have the sauce, the dough and the method. The only thing remaining?
I am now on a quest, for the perfect pizza cheese. I expect it will take me approximately 3 years, 4 mental breakdowns, 7 bottles of sedatives and quite possibly a black eye.
Wish me luck.
p.s. I would like to thank Jeff Crump who kindly gave me permission (for reals) to publish his pizza dough recipe.
Marti
Made three batches of this tonight for a family party. Put it in the fridge. I think it's growing in there at this very moment... growing together... joining into one big pizza dough blob and soon will take over the world.
I'm pretty sure.
Karen
Don't be silly. Pizza blobs can't take over the world. Gummie bears? Now that's another story. ~ karen!
Marti
I dunno, Karen, those seem to rise so fast. I've always heard that pizza dough is best made the day before and left to rise. But those are rising so well and so fast that I worry that they might run out of food to grow on, by this evening. It's really good looking dough, though. I am very amazed at what great pizza dough this is.
Karen
They're rising in your fridge?? That's strange. Is it a real fridge or one made out of cardboard? They shouldn't be rising in the cold of the fridge. Very, very strange. ~ karen!
Marti
It's a fridge owned by an 83 year old and his 76 year old wife, who love to open the door, stand in front and survey what's going on inside. (My Dad is former professor of Food Science. Aging food nerd.) And I've noticed that it seems to need it's front legs adjusted to tilt back a bit more. It doesn't shut as well as I'd like.
I made the dough around 9pm last night. Punched it down at midnight when I went to bed and again this morning at 8am.
It's very... uhhhhh, successful dough, I'm thinking.
Marti
The pizza was great. Everyone (kids and adults) raved about the flavor and consistency of the dough. Made four pizzas out of two batches and put the third one in the freezer. Perfection! Thanks for another great recipe, Karen!
Karen
Ah! I was wondering what happened with The Blob. Glad it turned out. I have a delicious, easy jalapeño popper recipe coming up next week. AND it's low calorie so you can eat like 10 of them. ~ karen!
Marti
Love jalapeno poppers. Seems like everybody has a good recipe. My recipe (from a friend) is also low calorie. But your recipes always seem to take it to another level, so I will definitely keep an eye out. :)
Emily T
Dear Karen,
You have inspired me. Never in my life did I ever think I would make pizza dough from scratch. What's the point? There's a pizza shop on every corner! AND yet, here I am. Proof that not only can it be done, but it's awesome. THANK YOU THANK YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART THANK YOU! I would have never done it without you. You are awesome.
Emily
Karen
Emily! Good for you! See? It ain't that hard. :) Next thing you know you'll be building a chicken coop. ~ karen!
Warren
Karen,
Our house was built back in mid 70's and the kitchen is next to family room. There is a small indoor BBQ pit, on the back side of the fireplace, so there are 2 chimney openings....
it can burn wood, or charcoal.... But the pit is directly under a single level grill, so hard to conteol heat....
The old owner never used it much.... In fact when we first visited house, he used the long vertical opening as a storage .... to store the bag of cat litter or cat food....
In the years since we have used it occasionally, the food cooked was always good but tedious...to get coals food ready...compared to the convenince of modern gas grills.
Well now my ever so handy father in law, decided to install some brackers to makw the grill height ADJUSTABLE!
That is the long backstoryy......
All this to say, last week i decided to try home made pizza dough before ever seeing this blogpost....and used the recipe from the Fleischmanns site... Worked great.....
Now finding your blog about using BBQ, i am going to try to use it as a wood oven!!!
Wish me luck, ..... Or send the Firemen!!!
W
Warren
..... Er ... Meant to say i tried the homle made pizza originally in conventional oven.... It turned out great......
And will now try the BBQ pit as a wood oven for pizza
Karen
Warren - I'll do both. :) ~ karen
Ashley
I have used this recipe several times, even oncec in a pizza dough competition night with friends and the recipe has won! I also have the Earth to Table cookbook and love to reread it at each season change! Thanks for the beautiful pictures!
diane
Oh Karen... over there in the East of Canada... what is that cloth that you are covering your dough with?
do you just plop it on the four balls or is it damp?
Karen
Diane - It's just a plain flour sack (cotton) tea towel. And yes, it's damp. ~ karen!
Sal
Hiya Karen,
We're big homemade pizza fans here, with my 3.5yo doing most of the sauce/toppings (I think teaching kids to cook is essential).
We've tried making dough in the breadmaker before, but it's been (in your words) crap.
Have you tried this recipe in the breadmaker, as lindyb alludes to?
Karen
Hi Sal - No, there's really no reason to do this one in a breadmaker. It takes no time at all and only requires 3 minutes or so of kneading. I double the recipe and put half in the freezer so it's always there for an emergency. ~ karen!
Tonia
I want a pizza dough I can toss in the air, not roll out. I used to work at Papa John's in a different life and their dough was just the perfect pliable loveliness for tossing. Can you toss this recipe or do you need to roll it out?
Any ideas for tossable dough?
Karen
Tonia - Can can toss any good dough. But if you're just making the small pizzas then no, they're not as tossable. For the large pizzas, yup. Toss away. ~ karen
Allison
Flat beater, you say? I've just been calling it "The Mario Leaf" all these years. Someday I'll turn into a grown up...
Martha
Earth to Table! Such an amazing cookbook. Everything I've made from it is delicious. My father even planned an entire party around recipes from the book.
The meat pies with chestnuts is delicious, but it takes forever to make... it almost turned me off the cookbook, but then the taste of them got me back on board.
Karen
Martha - I'm going to try the port braised short ribs this weekend! Can't wait. ~ karen
Karen N
We got a Big Green Egg last August which is an ceramic BBQ/smoker and makes everything taste incredible - it goes up to 700 degrees!
My 23 year old son has been trying to perfect his pizza making and he gets better every time. We will definitely try your pizza dough recipe. One tip is to use King Arthur all-purpose flour - it makes a great dough!
Also at Christmas, we made our pizza with a good local Texas BBQ sauce. It was so good that I was calling the pizza "Texas Orgasm" and my kids were sure I was a little drunk/fuzzy! They may have been right!
mary c
Where ze heck is ze photo of ze finished pizza?
Karen
Mary - I didn't take one. :( Sorry! It wasn't really about making pizza so much as making dough. ~ karen
Holly
As much as I love this recipe, I just have to ask.....are those ginger snaps in that jar next to your mixer cuz I love me some ginger snaps! That's all.
Karen
Yup. Ginger snaps. I'm constantly on the lookout for the BEST ginger snaps. Those in the jar .. are not them, sadly, LOL. ~ karen
Kim Merry
I add spices to my pizza dough. It gives it a great taste and looks pretty too!
lindyb
You'll never believe it, but that's the same pizza dough recipe that came with my breadmaker 11 years ago. The breadmaker is history, but I hung onto that recipe and use it all the time!
Gayla T
Some days reading your blog is like going to school and today is certainly one of them. Even this old dog can learn new tricks. What does make me laugh is that drudge cooking has become so sophisticated. My mother-in-law baked all her family's bread and whipped out a batch of biscuits at every meal. Yes, every day at every meal. Can you even imagine? She also worked outside her home To the youngsters w/o a KitchenAid, your time will come. My chums and I did it all by hand when we were young and strong (also poor) raising our families and then got the labor savers when we got old and weak. A stand mixer was low on the priority list behind baseball cleats,cheerleader uniforms and band instruments. I can't wait to try Pizza on the grill but it will have to warm up a lot before I stick my nose outside long enough to try it.
Shauna
For our honeymoon, my husband and I went to a cooking school in Italy and learned how to make pizza dough (and of course they put it in the pizza oven) and while our recipe is very easy, it will be fun to try a new one. Thanks
Karen
That sounds like the *perfect* honeymoon. ~ karen
PrairieGrrrl Karen
Is the pizza making honeymoon still available? Do you have any contact info?
Leigh
Hi Karen - I can't wait to try this! I am interested in know if the dough can be frozen and baked later? I know this works with some bread dough - but do you think it would work with pizza dough?
Cheers - Leigh
Karen
Yup. Freeze away! ~ karen
Joanne
AHHH! You stopped right where I typically screw up and for the life of me have not figured out how to roll out the dough! You stopping the post at the point without explanation makes me fell like a complete moron because it must be SO SIMPLE. What's the trick? Lots of flour everywhere? I find it the dugh sticks to everything! I use a wooden roller thingie (what are those called again?) but can't get the dough to do anything except spring back into the little ball again like it doesn't want to grow up. Help!
Karen
Joanne - The dough isn't springing back because of your rolling pin technique, it's your dough. It's crap dough or it hasn't been allowed to rest enough. With a good dough it'll roll out like nothin. - karen
Joanne
Thanks for the reply Karen! I will try it this weekend.
deborah
I bbq some of my pizzas too...be careful though. Bragging it up to my daughter we painstakingly made 2 large pizzas for the whole family. Oh so gorgeous looking.
Until...
I didn't realize her BBQ got much much hotter than mine and within a moments they turned to dust. Burned to a crisp. Charred beyond belief :(
Had to order out (big frown).
Sigh.
Lisa
It looks like rennet may be available from here in Canada:
http://www.glengarrycheesemaking.on.ca/