A Thousand Miles From The Place I Was Born

This month’s challenge was another savory one. Like I said last month, I am not good at anything bread-related. I particularly dislike kneading. I have heard some people say that they find it to be relaxing, almost meditative. I certainly don’t. I find it to be repetitive, boring and labor-intensive. All the same, when I found out that this month’s challenge would be pizza dough, I struck on an idea. When CCB visited earlier this month, I pulled out the recipe and we had a family pizza party. The dough made enough for six 8-9″ pizzas. Tyler, Lauren and I were each able to make a regular tomato-sauced pizza and a dessert pizza. I supplied them with several toppings and they chose what they wanted on their pizzas. Lauren was excited about the prospect of having her very own pie (even if she only ate 1/8 of each one).

When I was younger, I always got in trouble in school because I refused to read the directions before starting an assignment. I still have that problem, although it rarely comes back to bite me in the ass. So imagine my surprise when I began to make the pizza dough and discovered that you’re supposed to “rest” the dough in the refrigerator overnight. I had six hours before I needed to serve it. Great! I decided to refrigerate it for as long as I could and see how it turned out. Four hours later, I pulled the dough out to let it rest at room temperature for two hours, and you know what? It turned out just fine. The dough was tasty and soft… probably the best pizza dough I’ve ever tasted. Too bad it took so damn long to make.

RECIPE:
Basic Pizza Dough
Taken from “The Bread Baker’s Apprentice” by Peter Reinhart.
Makes 6 pizza crusts (about 9 1/2 inches / 23-30 cm in diameter)

Ingredients:

4 1/2 cups Unbleached high-gluten bread flour or all purpose flour, chilled (I used bread flour and I did not chill it.  It turned out fine).
1 3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon instant yeast
1/4 cup olive oil or vegetable oil, optional (I used olive oil)
1 3/4 cups water, ice cold (I needed almost 2 cups total)
1 tablespoon sugar
Semolina/durum flour or cornmeal for dusting (I used a well-seasoned pizza stone, so I didn’t need or use this).

DAY ONE
Method:
1. Mix together the flour, salt and instant yeast in a big bowl (or in the bowl of your stand mixer).

2. Add the oil, sugar and cold water and mix well (with the help of a large wooden spoon or with the paddle attachment, on low speed) in order to form a sticky ball of dough. On a clean surface, knead for about 5-7 minutes, until the dough is smooth and the ingredients are homogeneously distributed. If it is too wet, add a little flour (not too much, though) and if it is too dry, add 1-2 teaspoons extra water (I needed almost 1/4 cup more).
Note: If you are using an electric mixer, switch to the dough hook and mix on medium speed for the same amount of time. The dough should clear the sides of the bowl but stick to the bottom of the bowl. The finished dough should be springy, elastic and sticky, not just tacky, and register 50-55 degrees F, 10-13 degrees C.

3. Flour a work surface or counter. Line a jelly pan with baking paper/parchment. Lightly oil the paper.

4. With the help of a metal or plastic dough scraper, cut the dough into 6 equal pieces (or large if you want to make larger pizzas.)

5. Sprinkle some flour over the dough. Make sure your hands are dry and then flour them. Gently round each piece into a ball.

6. Transfer the dough balls to the lined jelly pan and mist them generously with spray oil (I used Pam).  Slip the pan into plastic bag or enclose in plastic food wrap.

7. Put the pan into the refrigerator and let the dough rest overnight or up to three days. (This is the part that I missed!)
Note: You can store the dough balls in a zippered freezer bag if you want to save some of the dough for any future baking. In that case, pour some oil (a few tablespoons only) in a medium bowl and dip each dough ball into the oil, so that it is completely covered in oil. Then put each ball into a separate bag. Store the bags in the freezer for no longer than 3 months. The day before you plan to make pizza, remember to transfer the dough balls from the freezer to the refrigerator.

DAY TWO

8. On the day you plan to eat pizza, exactly 2 hours before you make it, remove the desired number of dough balls from the refrigerator. Dust the counter with flour and spray lightly with oil. Place the dough balls on a floured surface and sprinkle them with flour. Dust your hands with flour and delicately press the dough into disks about 1/2″ thick and 5″ in diameter. Sprinkle with flour and mist with oil. Loosely cover the dough rounds with plastic wrap and allow to rest 2 hours.

9. At least 45 minutes before making the pizza, place a baking stone on the lower third of the oven. Preheat the oven as hot as possible (500 degrees F).  (I just couldn’t bring myself to cook anything at this heat. I set my oven at 450 degrees, and they turned out great).

10. Generously sprinkle the back of a jelly pan with flour or cornmeal. Flour your hands (palms, backs and knuckles). Take 1 piece of dough by lifting it with a pastry scraper. Lay the dough across your fists in a very delicate way and carefully stretch it by bouncing it in a circular motion on your hands, and by giving it a little stretch with each bounce. Once the dough has expanded outward, move to a full toss.

Note: Make only one pizza at a time (yeah, like I could toss three pizzas in the air at once!) You can also resort to using a rolling pin, although it isn’t as effective as the toss method.

11. When the dough has the shape you want, place it on the back of the jelly pan (again, I used a well-seasoned pizza stone).

12. Lightly top it with sweet or savory toppings of your choice.

Our savory pizzas had a tomato sauce base. Tyler’s pizza had chicken sausage, bacon, green olives, kalamata olives, roasted red pepper, feta cheese and mozzarella cheese. Lauren’s pizza had bacon and mozzarella. Hey, she’s a picky kid, what can I say? I had everything that Tyler had except the feta… I love it, but wasn’t too keen about having it on a pizza.

Our dessert pizzas had a Nutella base. Tyler topped his with chocolate chips, coconut, chopped walnuts, and craisins. Lauren had chocolate chips and coconut. I had chocolate chips, coconut, chopped walnuts and a drizzle of butterscotch ice cream topping.

13. Slice the pizza in the oven and bake for about 5-8 minutes (at the temperature I used, 450 degrees, it took almost exactly 10 minutes).

All in all, the work was worth the effort.  The crust was quite simply the most amazing crust I’ve ever had.  The pizzas were really too large for one person, in my opinion, so I think Lauren and I could split a pizza between the two of us, which would mean that the recipe would make enough for 6 separate dinners for us.  Maybe I’ll try it again and freeze the dough so we can have pizzas whenever we want.  They certainly are a hit with Lauren!