Has anyone perfected pizza dough?

[rwalizer]

We like ours puffy and chewy, not thin and crispy. I've come pretty close to getting it just right. Does anyone have a preferred flour (all purpose, bread flour , etc.) or a brand that seems to work best? How about yeast? Are there any that you have found that are better than others?

[Jolash]

I use my bread machine and make an italian style bread dough then roll it out for pizza. It makes the best tasting crust! HTH

[Bambam]

I use bread flour. I use the active quick yeast (simply because otherwise I won't have time!). But the thing that seems to make it very tasty is to add various herbs to the olive oil before I mix it into the dough. I toss some garlic power and some italian seasoning in there and let the flavors mix well before I use it. I also use garlic salt vs. just plain salt. But then, we like garlic!

 

Now I'm hungry for pizza, but I have a chicken in the crockpot.

[athena1277]

There's an episode of "Good Eats" that is about pizza. I don't remember how it was made, but dh made it that way and really liked it (and he is picky!).

[rwalizer]

There's an episode of "Good Eats" that is about pizza. I don't remember how it was made, but dh made it that way and really liked it (and he is picky!).

 

Ooooh, thanks! I'll see if Food Network's website has any info. on it.

[Oakblossoms]

I triple the recipe that came with our kitchen aid mixer. I start it in the morning and than let it rise in the fridge with a damp towel over the top. When it rises I let a clean kid punch it down. It usually rise two or three times by dinner. We let it sit on the counter for about 30 minutes or however long it takes to loosen and warm up. People can roll it out thick or thin and it works both ways. It will last two days easily as long as you punch it down again when it rises.

[JenniferB]

I make this about once a week, because my husband says it's the best pizza on the planet.

 

I make the dough in my bread maker on the "Pizza Dough" setting, which takes 55 minutes.

 

1 2/3 C warm water

2 T olive oil

2 T sugar

2 t salt

4 1/2 C white flour (regular kind from Costco)

2 t instant yeast (which I keep in the refrigerator)

 

After it's done I knead it into a ball, then I divide it in 2 and stretch/toss then into 2 crusts.

I spray the pan with Pam and sprinkle some corn meal on the bottom of the pans, then I place the dough on top, and add all my topings.

 

Bake each pizza separately at 425 for 20 mins.

 

The edges are chewy & puffy, and the middle is thin and crispy on the bottom, but not cracker crispy.

[E_Edgerton]

Have you thought of just building a pizza on focaccia bread? It is very easy to make at home. It sounds like that may be what you are looking for..:)

[BikeBookBread]

This technique was from Fine Cooking: http://www.finecooking.com/recipes/easy_pizza_dough.aspx?nterms=50146,50050

 

I use bread/high gluten flour. When it comes to baking, if you have a stone, use it! And don't be afraid to use the highest temp your oven will go. I don't have a peel, so I just form my pizzas on parchment which I slide off of the back of a cookie sheet right onto the stone. This makes for a wonderful crust.

 

[mom2abunch]

Does anyone use ww flour for their crust?

[Jana]

Good pizza dough requires several things:

 

Adding vital gluten to your flour (1 TBS per cup of flour used)

Good fruity olive oil

knead it--a lot. You need to break down the gluten

letting it rise twice

 

Here is the best crust recipe I've ever found:

 

 

4 cups all-purpose flour

1 tbs salt

4tbs gluten flour

1 1/2 cups warm water

2 tbs sugar

3 tbs olive oil

 

 

Mix dry ingredients. Add sugar and yeast to warm water--let it get foamy. Add in olive oil, just before adding it to the flour mixture. Knead 10 mins. at least.

 

Let rise until doubled--in a greased bowl--about 1.5 hours. Then form into 3 balls. Let rise again--about an hour.

 

Bake on a pizza stone at 550.

 

It's tasty.

[BikeBookBread]

knead it--a lot. You need to break down the gluten

 

I got so interested in this thread after I submitted my post I did more research. I even found one recipe that called for kneading in stand mixer on low for 30 minutes! I think kneading is pretty key. This sounds pretty close to your recipe, Jana.

[Lizzie in Ma]

I use my bread machine and make an Italian style bread dough then roll it out for pizza. It makes the best tasting crust! HTH

 

That is what we do too, I have a great book for my machine called Electric Bread and I use the calzone dough recipe.

Once it is ready I roll it out evenly and put it on a cookie sheet and pre-bake for about 10 minutes at 400 degrees.

Then I put on the sauce and cheese and toppings and bake at 450 until the cheese is bubbly goodness!

 

I also make my own pizza sauce in an effort to get many things my kids wouldn't otherwise touch into them.

I use frozen veggies from Trader Joes and I make enough for pizza throughout the week for lunches as well as dinner the night I make it.

1 bag frozen spinach (thawed)

1 bag frozen tri colored peppers (thawed or not)

lazy I know but 1 bag frozen chopped onions (thawed or not)

1 shredded carrot

whatever else is on hand, zucchini, squash, leftover veggies of any kind

a little olive oil

garlic

salt and pepper and fresh grated Parmesan

1 small jar of the whatever is on sale this week spaghetti sauce

and I whoosh the whole shebang in the Cuisinart til it is the right texture.

Oddly, my kids have never questioned that pizza sauce is green, :D

[HeatherInWI]

We like this recipe, which seems just like Pizza Hut's chewy dough.

http://www.recipezaar.com/Pizza-Hut-Style-Pizza-Dough-Bread-Machine-51209 (but we don't use MSG in it!)

[LNC]

I make it in the Cuisinart with fresh ground white whole wheat. Easy!

 

http://www.cuisinart.com/recipes/recipe.php?recipe_id=436

[Oakblossoms]

Does anyone use ww flour for their crust?

 

I use half if I have it around. If you have a heavy duty mixer or good kneaders you are fine. I still get a great texture. If it's given a few good, cold rises in the fridge it will relax wonderfully when it's time to use it.

[gardening momma]

Some time ago I was looking for a good pizza crust recipe, and came across a website by a guy who made a lot of pizzas in his home (for company). He had somehow disabled the safety mechanism in his oven that prevents it from going above 500 degrees, so that it reached temperatures closer to that of a commercial pizza oven. He would preheat his oven with the pizza stone inside, form the dough on a pizza peel, top the pizza, and slide it onto the hot stone. His pizzas cooked for just over 2:40 minutes at temperatures around 700-800 degrees.

 

Obviously, I can't do that, and don't particularly want to, but I did take some tips from what he did. I preheat my oven to 475, with the pizza stone on the middle shelf. I don't have a pizza peel yet, but I have a round metal pizza pan with low, sloped sides, so I use that as my peel. I form my pizza dough on my "peel", with plenty of flour under it, so it'll slide onto the stone (you could use cornmeal). I cook my crust for about 5-7 minutes, then slide it back onto my peel. The last time I did this, I had quite a bit of extra flour, so after the crust cooled a bit, I flipped it over and used a pastry brush to brush off the excess flour. I did this to the stone too.

 

Then I put my sauce & toppings on, and slid the pizza onto the stone, and baked for about 7 minutes more. Total baking time is a lot shorter than it used to be, now that I'm using a higher oven temp and the preheated stone. I get a crust that's soft inside, but with just a bit of crunch on the bottom where it came in contact with the stone.

 

One of these days I'll try it at a temp closer to 500 and see how it goes.

[gardening momma]

Ok, here is the website I referred to: http://www.varasanos.com/PizzaRecipe.htm

 

Looks like the guy has a pizzeria now--he may have before, but I didn't remember it--but there are pictures of him in his home making pizzas. And lots of pictures of pizzas, and how long they took to bake--some for just 1:40!

 

After scanning the page, maybe I need to reconsider tampering with my oven. :D