6.1 Dough

Maybe this belongs in the bread section, I don’t know. But it’s not really intended to be it’s own thing, so I’m putting it here. Don’t like it? Go make your own cookbook. Or just use a different one. Whatever.

Source: Several that I sort of amalgamated, mainly AllRecipes, with some elements of Food.com, and Sugardishme

Ingredients

Tools

250 g water (~1.1 cup)

2 cup measuring cup

2 1/4 tsp yeast

Whisk

8-10 g sugar (1 - 1 1/2 tsp)

Mixing bowl

8-10 g salt (1 - 1 1/2 tsp)

Sturdy spoon

2 tbsp olive oil

Cookie sheet

415 g cups flour (~2 1/2 cups)

Rolling pin

Preparation:

Pre-note: If you’re using instant yeast as opposed to active dry yeast, you can just mix all the try ingredients together from the beginning, no need to for steps 1 and 2.

  1. Warm the water to 100° - 110° F.
  2. Add the yeast and whisk to dissolve. You can add some sugar here as well, I typically add 1/2 teaspoon. In around 5 minutes, the yeast should be bubbling. If it’s not, go back to the beginning.
  3. While the yeast is activating, measure out the flour, salt, and sugar into a mixing bowl. Dealer’s choice on whether you want to subtract any sugar used for the yeast from the overall recipe. Or add more, this is your pizza crust.
  4. Once the yeast is activated, pour it into the flour and start mixing.
  5. After a little bit the dough will start to form and get to a point where you can’t really mix it anymore. There will probably be some parts of the flour that are not fully incorporated in the dough.
  6. Once it gets to this point, dump it out onto a lightly floured surface. Make sure to get as much as you can, since you’ll be reusing the bowl.
  7. Knead by hand until the dough is somewhat smooth and elastic. You may need to be adding a bit more flour through this process so the dough ball doesn’t stick to your fingers or the counter.
  8. When it’s ready or your sick of kneading, form the dough into a ball, spray some oil into the mixing bowl and put the dough back in (as long as the bowl is reasonably clean). Cover it with a dish towel and let it sit to rise.
  9. The time you give for rising can vary. If you’re in a hurry, put the dough somewhere warm (e.g., on top of a preheating oven, or in a microwave with a glass of water you just boiled) for 10-15 minutes. If you have more time, you can let it rise for a couple hours.
  10. When the dough is ready (doubled in size from rising, or you’re getting hangry), dump it out onto a lightly floured surface (probably the same one as before). Sprinkle some flour on it, and roll it out - gently at first, I usually deflate it with my hands to start. I generally roll it out until it doesn’t really want to stretch anymore.
  11. Gently lift the dough off the counter, and place it on an oiled cookie sheet or pizza pan. The way I roll it out, there is always extra. Cut off the excess, form a new dough ball and roll it out. Usually there is enough left over for a second (smaller) pizza, or for making garlic bread.
  12. You don’t have to, but I like to spray the dough with more olive oil before adding sauce. Then add the toppings you like.
  13. Bake the pizza at 425^{} F for 20 minutes. Keep an eye on it the first time or two, since you may want to adjust the time depending on your altitude or oven.

Variations:

  • The amounts of salt, sugar, and olive oil are pretty forgiving. I don’t measure the oil anymore, I just pour some from the bottle can call it good.
  • If you know that you will have more or less time, you can adjust the yeast. Less yeast means you’ll need to allow more time for the dough to rise. I’ve cut the yeast in half before, and let the dough rise for 3-4 hours.

Notes:

  • I use a kitchen scale to measure ingredients, and adjusted the amounts
  • You can use a stand mixer with dough hook to mix if you want, I find the amount of dough isn’t worth the hassle of using it. Maybe if you’re making multiple batches at once it would be.