Materials: (in no particular order)
Pizza peel
Pizza stone
Dough cutter
Dough scraper
Dough whisk mixer-if you don’t have a Kitchen-Aid mixer with a dough attachment
A scale- to make sure the dough balls weight are consistent
Large mixing bowl
Pizza Dough:
This is enough for two large or three medium pies.
1 ¾ cups of cold water
½ teaspoon of yeast
1 teaspoon of sugar
1 ½ tablespoons of olive oil
3 ½ cups of flour
1 ½ tablespoons of Himalayan pink salt
In a large mixing bowl, whisk water, yeast, sugar and olive oil thoroughly
Add flour and use a dough whisk mixer or (if you have it) a Kitchen-Aid mixer with dough attachment
After initial mixing, use the dough scraper to scrap any excess dough on the sides of the mixing bowl down into the rest of the dough
Let dough sit in bowl for 15-20, this will allow the yeast to mix with the other ingredients
Add pink salt and mix again
Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge overnight.
4-5 hours before you are ready to bake the pizzas, take out dough and cut into 2 or 3 pieces depending on how large you want your pizza (use the scale to make sure all pizzas are the same weight/size)
Cover hands with flour and work into even balls (make it look like a baseball)
Flour countertop with an even coat, place balls 12 inches apart and cover with a kitchen towel, do not disturb-the balls will expand
Pizza Sauce: Make the sauce immediately after covering the dough balls.
1 16 oz. can of crushed tomatoes
2 tablespoons of olive oil
3-4 garlic gloves (more if you’re a fan of garlic)
1 ½ tablespoons of Himalayan pink salt
Add crushed tomatoes, olive oil, garlic and pink salt to a medium sized bowl and mix completely
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place in fridge for 4-5 hours
Baking Pizzas:
Pizza peel
Semolina flour
Pizza sauce
Mozzarella cheese (both shredded and unshredded)
Any other ingredients you may want to add
Roughly an hour to an hour and a half before you are ready to bake, place the pizza stone in the oven and set to bake at 550 degrees. The pizza stone should sit at 550 degrees for a full hour before you put any pizzas in the oven.
When ready to bake, roll dough balls into large flat circles and let sit on countertop. Place the pizza peel next to the flattened dough. Take the pizza sauce out of the fridge and place it on the other side of pizza peel.
Take a small handful of semolina flour and thoroughly rub on top of the pizza peel. Make sure the entire pizza peel is covered, this allows for an easy transition when sliding the pizza onto the stone. (We prefer semolina flour to cornmeal because it doesn’t change the flavor of the crust).
Place dough on pizza peel. Scoop roughly a half ladle full of sauce and pour on dough in a circular motion starting in the middle. Use the bottom of the ladle to rub in evenly. Using your hands, rip small chunks from a mozzarella ball and place inches apart over the pizza.
Use the shredded mozzarella and fill in between the mozzarella chunks
Add any other ingredients you may prefer.
Note- it should take less than 5 minutes to put all the ingredients on your pizza once the dough in on the peel- any longer and the dough may stick to your peel.
Open the oven and place the front tip of the pizza peel close to the back edge of stone. Using a slight upward-flicking motion of the wrist, flip the peel up while pulling back and the dough should fall on the stone (this will take some practice)- Hopefully your oven has a self-cleaning feature.
Bake 5-7 minutes- this will cook the dough.
After that time, set your oven to broil on high- this will cook the ingredients top down. Broil the pizza for 3-4 minutes, until the top begins to brown- make sure you keep a close eye, the top can burn quickly.
Using tongs or prongs, slide the pizza out of the oven and onto a wooden cutting board, drizzle olive oil and shred some hard parmesan cheese using a cheese grader. Let sit for 5-6 minutes.
Cut, serve, and enjoy!
Note- DO NOT cut your pizza on your pizza peel, this will create grooves on the peel and will make it harder to slide the dough into the oven.
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