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Needed: Pizza Dough Recipe

jcattles Dec 22, 2008 04:39 PM

I'm looking for a good pizaa dough recipe. I like my crust on the thin side with just a bit of chew, Not too crispy. My recipe works well, but I'm wondering if there is better ones out there. I plan on making the dough at lunch and letting it rise until I get home, then split up for indvidual pizzas. I live at a high altitude and have noticed when I make bread, naan, pizza, etc...it gets way to crispy. Any advice to keep it on the chewier side?

  1. k
    Kelli2006 Dec 22, 2008 10:46 PM

    If you want to add chew to a dough, you might want to increase the fats(oils, butter) by a TBL or so, but make certain that you adequately knead the dough to develop the gluten.

    1. shanagain Dec 22, 2008 06:52 PM

      From a previous post on the subject (for what it's worth, you and I like the same dough type):

      After trying a few recipes I decided to go by my gut and this is what's developed. Remember, this makes four large pies, so you might want to just shape part of it into a loaf and bake it as bread, since it's an adaptation of a bread recipe I use frequently.

      1 slightly heaping tablespoon bread machine yeast (it's cheaper to buy a big jar and keep it in the fridge if you bake often)
      2 1/4 C warm water (you're going for very warm, not hot)
      about 1 T sugar
      about 1 T salt
      1 heaping T vital wheat gluten (find it in the baking aisle)
      Up to about 5-6C All purpose flour - there's no way to say for sure, it'll depend upon the humidity in your house.
      Extra virgin olive oil - about 1/4C

      Combine the warm water and yeast, then add sugar, salt, vital wheat gluten and about 1/2 cup of flour. Mix and let sit for about five minutes. (This is a good time to put your stone in the oven, start preheating, get the rest of your prep area ready for you.)

      If you have a mixer with a dough hook, add flour about a cup at a time until the dough starts to pull away from the sides. At this point, if you pinch off a piece of dough, it'll look like it's started to be "dough" but will be very soft and sticky on your fingers. Turn out on a floured surface and sprinkle with flour and start to knead your dough. Since it's a relatively soft dough your hands are going to pretty much be a mess (not coated in stickiness, but close), but the trick is to only knead in enough flour so that you can work the dough. You'll probably knead in about a cup or more of flour - the goal is a soft, pliable dough that will stick to your counter if you don't keep moving it and adding small amounts of flour as you go. (A pastry scraper is handy at this point in letting you pick up the dough and slam it back down on the counter keeping one hand out of the way, doing most of the kneading with one hand.)

      When the dough is still soft but you're just almost able to knead it without adding any more flour, pour the olive oil into a large bowl and place your dough in the bowl, turning so the top is coated. Cover with plastic wrap (loosely, but so the dough is covered) and place in a warm - not hot - spot near your preheating oven. Let the dough rise to double, about an hour.

      Punch the dough down and divide into four pieces and let rest for a couple of minutes. On a lightly floured surface, pat/roll into a circle and transfer to your pizza peel.

      At this point it can't be stressed enough - work as fast as you can to avoid warming the dough too much if you're using the corn meal method.

      I'm not convinced that the "recipe" is the trick at all, as I've said - I managed to make a perfect dough a few weeks ago and since then I've made it a couple more times and realized it's really about knowing when to leave your dough alone and not try to get it too easy to knead.

      1. r
        Rick Dec 22, 2008 05:21 PM


        I've had great results with that.

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