Today the BF and I are bringing you the recipe we use to make pizza at home. It's the perfect dough recipe!
This dough recipe is taken from Jeffrey Hamelman’s book Bread. The key to good pizza is good dough. The toppings are easy enough to get right, but the dough is a little harder. The keys to making good dough are good ingredients and making a starter 12-16 hours, or in our case, the night before. This starter, called a biga, is similar to a poolish (from the French bread recipe), in that it gets the yeast active and enables the final dough to have a complex flavor.
Like the French bread post, this recipe uses the baker's percentage. To make two pizza crusts, our starting flour weight is 1 pound 2.2 ounces. The formula is as follows:
- Flour: 1 pound 2.2 ounces 100%
- Water: 12.4 ounces 68%
- Salt: .3 ounces 1.8%
- Yeast: .13 ounces 1.3%
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil: .9 ounces 5%
To make the biga, take 20% of the overall intended flour by weight (for this recipe 20% of our starting flour is 3.6 ounces) and saturate it to 60% by weight. (60% of 3.6 ounces is 2.2 ounces.) Combine the 3.6 ounces of flour with 2.2 ounces of water and a pinch of yeast in a mixing bowl and stir. Cover with a towel and allow it to rest. Write these numbers down because the next morning you’ll need to remember how much flour and water are in the biga. The biga will be ready to use in the final dough approximately 12-16 hours later, or when it is just starting to recede in the middle.
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| Biga |
Once the biga is ready, set it aside and combine the remaining flour (14.6 ounces), water (10.2 ounces), salt (.3 ounces), and yeast (.13 ounces) into a bowl. Leave the biga and olive oil aside for now. Mix the ingredients in a stand mixer for approximately 3 minutes on the first speed just to incorporate the ingredients. As the dough starts coming together, turn the mixer off and add the biga in large chunks to various parts of the dough. Do your best to scatter it around so the biga is combined evenly into the dough.
Next, turn the mixer to second speed for another 3 minutes to start the kneading process. After 3 minutes turn the mixer off and drizzle in the olive oil. It will seem like way too much olive oil at first, but it takes time for the dough to absorb the oil; in fact, some may still be left over at the bottom of the bowl after mixing is over and that’s OK. The remaining oil will be absorbed slowly as the dough ferments. Mix for an additional 2 minutes on second speed to incorporate the olive oil. Remove the dough from the mixing bowl, and set it aside in a clean bowl for 1 hour.
After an hour, stretch and fold the dough on a lightly floured surface and return it to the bowl for an additional hour. Next, it's time to divide the dough and shape it. On a lightly floured surface, divide the dough into 1 pound pieces and shape them into a ball. If you want to bake the dough right away, allow the dough to rest for about 20 minutes. If you aren’t ready to bake the dough, you can place it in the fridge for a few days. If this is the case, put the dough on a lightly floured plate, cover it with plastic, and place it in the fridge. When you are ready to bake, allow the dough to rest at room temperature for about an hour before shaping it.
Preheat your oven to 500 degrees and shape the dough by slowly stretching it with your hands. The thinner the dough gets, the easier it will rip. Making a fist motion and stretching works better than pushing and stretching the dough out with your fingers.
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| Stretch Your Dough |
Once the dough is stretched, it’s ready to top with your homemade sauce and chosen ingredients. The sauce recipe we use is super easy to make and is WAY better than any of the canned stuff. It tastes so fresh and makes enough sauce for two pizzas.
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| Top Your Dough with Pizza Sauce |
After spreading sauce on your crust, brush a bit of olive oil around the edge to make it crispy and golden brown.
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| Brush Olive Oil on Crust |
For our pizza toppings, we chose fresh chopped basil, red onion, minced garlic, and mild Italian sausage. For the sausage, we tried Johnsonville Naturals mild Italian sausage. The Naturals line does not contain artificial ingredients, flavors, colors, or preservatives, which is definitely something I want on my pizza. It was super flavorful and we could really taste the fennel and other spices. We also made a second pizza with Johnsonville Naturals mild Italian sausage, fresh mushrooms, sliced tomatoes, minced garlic, and chopped basil. You can experiment with all kinds of toppings! For the cheeses, we used equal parts shredded mozzarella, cheddar, and an Italian four cheese blend.
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| Pizza Toppings |
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| Pizza with Toppings |
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| Homemade Sausage, Red Onion, Garlic & Basil Pizza |
Note: this post is sponsored by Johnsonville Naturals; however, all opinions are my own.
Homemade Pizza
Makes two 12-inch pizzas
Dough recipe adapted from Jeffrey Hamelman’s Bread
Sauce recipe adapted from MyRecipes.com
Equipment Needed:
Stand mixer
Kitchen towel
2 large mixing bowls
Wooden spoon
Baking stone or cookie sheet
Parchment paper
Dough:
Bread flour
Water
Yeast
Salt
Extra virgin olive oil (+ additional for brushing the edges of your pizza crust)
Use baker's percentage:
- Flour: 1 pound 2.2 ounces 100%
- Water: 12.4 ounces 68%
- Salt: .3 ounces 1.8%
- Yeast: .13 ounces 1.3%
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil: .9 ounces 5%
Sauce:
7 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
1 1/2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 (14.5-ounce) can petite-cut diced tomatoes, undrained
1 (6-ounce) can tomato paste
Toppings:
3 Johnsonville Naturals sausage links, casings removed
1 cup chopped fresh basil
1 Red onion
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1/3 cup Shredded Mozzarella
1/3 cup Shredded Cheddar
1/3 cup Shredded Italian cheese blend
Directions:
1. 12-16 hours before you mix your dough, make the biga. Combine 20% of the overall flour weight (3.6 ounces) and saturate it to 60% with water (2.2 ounces) in a bowl. Add a pinch of yeast and stir. Cover and allow the dough to rest.
2. 12-16 hours later, take the remaining flour, water, salt, and yeast, and combine them in a different mixing bowl. Mix for approximately 3 minutes on first speed.
3. Turn the mixer off and add the biga in chunks evenly around the dough. Mix for an additional 3 minutes on second speed to knead the dough.
3. Turn the mixer off and drizzle in the olive oil. Mix for an additional 2 minutes on second speed.
4. Turn off the mixer and remove the dough from the mixing bowl. Place it in a clean bowl, cover it with a towel, and allow it to ferment for an hour.
5. After an hour, stretch and fold the dough on a lightly floured surface and return it to the bowl. Cover it and allow the dough to ferment for an additional hour.
6. Remove the dough from the bowl and on a lightly floured surface divide it into 1 pound pieces.
7. Shape the dough into balls and allow it to rest for 20 minutes.
8. If you are not baking the dough right away, place the dough on a lightly floured plate, cover it with plastic, and refrigerate it. Dough that has been refrigerated will need roughly an hour at room temperature before it is ready to be stretched and shaped.
9. Preheat your oven to 500 degrees.
10. Stretch the dough by lightly pulling on it with your fingers. As the dough gets thinner, use your fist gently to continue stretching it to the desired size.
11. Prepare your sauce by combining all ingredients in a medium bowl. Stir with a wooden spoon until well incorporated.
12. Spread sauce onto crust and brush edges with olive oil.
13. Top your pizza with your preferred toppings and cheeses.
14. Baked at 500 degrees on a parchment-lined baking stone or cookie sheet for 17 minutes
15. Allow to cool and enjoy!
Thanks for sharing
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