So, once upon a time, I found (and bookmarked) a recipe for bread dough. I made a couple of tweaks to it and ended up with the perfect Pizza Dough. And my pizzas were Legend.
The only drawback to the recipe is that, to do it right, you’ve got to make the dough 12-24 hours BEFORE the pizza. And then…. I discovered pre-made pizza crusts. And I got out of the habit because it’s a lot easier to have a stack of pizza crusts on hand than it is to remember to make the dough in advance.
I decided to get back to it, because I really didn’t like the pre-made crusts as much (they were not BAD, just not as GOOD). And then I decided to make it again, and the website I had bookmarked was no longer there. No problem, I say, pretty sure I have the recipe in my head… and… well, I was CLOSE… but it wasn’t quite right.
And then, a few months ago, I found a place where I had written down my version of the recipe for someone else. I just made a couple of meals (1 pizza, 1 calzone) with it, and they were PERFECT. And it’s going to be MONTHS before I can make this for my parties again, and I am very frustrated because I like to cook FOR people, so I’m going to share this recipe with you.
The original recipe, which was for bread in a crockpot:
1 (0.25 ounce) package OR 2 ¼ Teaspoons Active Dry Yeast
1 ¼ Cups warm (not hot) water
3 Cups unbleached bread flour, sifted if desired
I’ll get into the actual doughmaking in a minute, because it’s the same either way, but I want to stop here and point out that “3 Cups” in both cases, is a ballpark. The actual amount it’s going to take varies, because flour doesn’t store evenly. In theory, it should be given as a weight, but fuck if I know what the right weight is.
Now, my recipe goes like this:
1 (0.25 ounce) package OR 2 ¼ Teaspoons Active Dry Yeast
1 ¼ Cups warm (not hot) water
3 Cups unbleached bread flour, sifted if desired
McCormick’s Perfect Pinch Roasted Garlic and Bell Pepper (more on this in the text)
Start by adding the water, sugar, and yeast into a mixing bowl, and mix them thoroughly. This, in my opinion, is the most aggravating part because yeast really likes to clump. It’s not hard work, but you should now take a break for 20 minutes or so. When you come back, there should be a lot of bubbles in the mix. If not… well, the bad news is that your yeast was bad, but the good news is that you discovered this before wasting all the time and ingredients.
Now, add the salt, shortening, and (for the pizza recipe) olive oil. It helps to warm up the shortening so that it’s liquid, or at least liquid-adjacent, but don’t overheat it or you’ll kill yeast.
Add flour, about 1/3 cup at a time, mixing until it’s even.
If you’re making pizza, stop after 1 1/3 cups and mix in your seasonings. For me, this is an eye-ball thing… a couple of shakes of red pepper, enough black pepper that you can see it, and then a healthy amount of the Roasted Garlic and Bell Pepper. This is going to be entirely to taste. Sometimes I’ll add a little bit of grated Parmesan as well, but if it’s not fresh, the taste will be a little off.
(Note: I listed the exact brand because I’m not aware of any others that make it. Around here you can’t get it at Wal-Mart anymore, but you can find it at Food Lion or Wegman’s. And, just as a side note, I put this stuff in everything.)
Anyway, either version of the recipe, you continue adding the floor and mixing it until your dough is no longer sticking to the side of the bowl. (If you’re using a Stand Mixer with a bread hook, you’ll notice that the dough has “cleaned” the bowl, at least at the bottom where it’s been rolling around.)
You should be able to just pull the dough ball off the bread hook and work it into a ball. It will feel a little tacky, but it won’t stick to your fingers, the bowl, or the hook. If it sticks, throw it back in and add flour until doesn’t. Then, knead for about 5 minutes.
If you’re making the crock-pot bread, you can either put a loaf pan in the crock pot, or line the crock with parchment paper, and then put the crock pot on high. cook for 1 ½ - 2 ½ hours (crockpots vary). You’ll know its done when it has an internal temperature of ~195° F. (~90°C). Because the bread rises as it bakes, it’s going to be a bit denser. This is not sandwich bread. This is slather-with-butter-and-appreciate-as-delicious bread.
You could probably make it less dense by letting the dough rise, but… gonna be honest… I’ve never bothered.
But for pizza, you’re absolutely going to want to let this dough rise. Put in a bowl (I just use the original mixing bowl) and cover it with a cloth. At the bare minimum, let it rise for an hour, knead it just enough to get it back down in size, and then let it rise for an hour again, at which point you split it in half, and each half is one decent sized pizza crust. That’s the bare minimum; I prefer to let it rise for about 8 hours, then again for four. The longer you let it rise, the fluffier the crust, though if you wait too long you’ll develop kind of a dry skin that you have to work back into the dough. You can prevent this by lightly (VERY lightly) brushing it with olive oil.
If you want to go above and beyond– assemble your pizza toppings NOW, and mix them together with your cheese(s) and spices. Ever notice how pizza is somehow better when you re-heat it? It’s because the flavors have had a chance to mingle together overnight. If you mix it all together NOW, you can jumpstart that process.
Either way, once your dough has risen and you’re ready to go, preheat your oven to 425°F/215°C. Split your dough in half, each half makes for a decent pizza. If you’re a badass, you can hand-toss the dough, but I’m not a badass and I just roll it out with a pin on a clean surface that’s been sprinkled with flour. (Also, sprinkle the pin with flour.)
Throw it onto a lightly greased cookie sheet (depending on how thick you roll it, you can make it fit a medium-sized cookie sheet), add your desired amount of sauce, then cheese and toppings. Bake for 10-12 minutes.
(To make calzones, set the sauce aside for dipping, load up half the crust with cheese and toppings, fold it over, poke a few holes in the crust, and bake for 12-15 minutes.)
