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Perfect Pizza

I've tweaked and pondered and tested, and this recipe for crust and technique for baking is the best.

Course Main Course
Cuisine American
Keyword pizza
Servings 12 medium size servings
Author Debi Simons

Ingredients

  • 3 cups whole-wheat flour, preferably freshly ground, but regular whole wheat flour is fine*
  • 1 1/4 cups cool water
  • 1/2-2 tsp. yeast, any kind. If making the dough the night before, use 1/2 tsp. of yeast. If doing so right before making the pizza, use 2 tsp.
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon honey
  • 1 heaping tablespoon gluten, optional

Instructions

  1. If you're making the dough right before you bake the pizza, you'll need to knead it, by either putting it through the dough cycle of your bread machine, mixing it in your stand mixer with your dough hook, or doing it by hand. Because of the relatively high ratio of water to flour, kneading by hand is going to be a pain because the dough is so sticky. You don't want to add much flour at all or you'll mess things up, so you'll want to use some kind of dough scraper to help you with the hand stuff. I'd say five minutes or so in the mixer or maybe 7-8 minutes by hand should do it. Use the longer dough cycle on your bread machine if you have time; let your mixer- or hand-kneaded dough rise about an hour.

  2. If you make the dough the night before there's no need to knead, as the long rise develops the gluten. So just mix the dough in a large bowl, then oil or spray the top of it and roll the dough so the top is down and then oil or spray the new top. Cover well with plastic wrap and also with a lid, and stick it in the fridge.

  3. Heat your oven to 400 degrees with your baking stone, allowing enough time so that the oven will sit completely heated for at least 20 minutes before you put in the pizza and preferably 30 or more. (This recipe has been specifically developed for use with a stone.)

  4. Cut a piece of foil to fit your baking stone and put on top of whatever baking sheet you're using as a transfer tool. Spray with cooking spray. Press dough out to cover the foil with a slight lip. Spray top of dough with cooking spray. Transfer the dough and foil onto the stone and bake for 5 minutes.

  5. Slip baking sheet under foil/crust, take out of the oven.

  6. Add toppings: 1 1/2 cups tomato sauce, meats and/or vegetables, and 1/2-3/4 lb. grated mozzarella cheese. Can also add grated Parmesan cheese to the top. (See notes below for topping ideas.) Slide pizza back onto stone, bake for 5 minutes.

  7. Carefully pull foil out from under the pizza by taking hold of a corner while lifting edge of crust with a spatula. Let bake for at least 5 more minutes, then check to see that cheese is fully melted and bottom crust is well browned.

Recipe Notes

*Variation: Use 2 cups whole-wheat flour and 1 cup semolina flour for a lighter, crunchier crust.

Ideas for toppings:

Start with 1 1/2 cups or so of tomato sauce of some type; if you're using canned diced tomatoes drain off the liquid first. Spread the sauce as evenly as possible a spatula or the back of a spoon.

Sprinkle 1/2 - 3/4 pound grated mozzarella cheese over tomato sauce.

Meats can include: pepperoni, salami, bacon, browned ground beef, browned Italian sausage, crumbled or sliced, Canadian bacon or ham.

Vegetables can include: sauteed peppers and/or mushrooms, sliced black olives, sliced onions or shallots.

Optionally, you can also sprinkle grated Parmesan cheese over all.