Making pizza dough from scratch
The recipe I am listing below is a recipe for making pizza dough from scratch. it’s taken from the book by Marcella Hazan. Obviously top your pizza with whatever strikes your fancy!
How to make pizza dough
Let me start by making a confession; I am not a big pizza fan…. Maybe I should be reconsidering that, since my studio is actually located above the infamous New York Pizza chain!! 🙂 It also tends to be the first thing that people ask me when they first come to the studio; if I eat a lot of pizza… ?
Well, the answer would be no. NYP is only open from 4 pm anyway and I tend to be gone by then, so they wouldn’t be able to serve me pizza even if I wanted them to!
Pizza or no pizza?
But in general I have always thought of pizza as a second rate Italian meal. I mean; if you can have gorgeous pasta, delicious meat, fish or whatever other dishes, why settle for something as basic as pizza?? I don’t know… we sometimes order pizza, but the ones you tend to get are greasy, too thick or too thin, not cruncy and in general not really very good. Tom loves them, so we do order pizza sometimes, but then I order pasta carbonara… which is actually also horrible, but you know sometimes convenience wins from culinary delights… 🙂
Homemade pizza dough
However; once I discovered the delights of homemade pizza dough I had to reconsider my love/hate relationship with pizza. My track record with dough is not too good. I just tend to be too impatient to wait for the dough to be properly kneaded but I started making the pizza dough with the Kitchen Aid. And finished by hand. Surprisingly enough the dough was rising just fine and the end result was totally delicious. This recipe make a total of two 30 cm pizza’s.
If you want to make a perfect pizza it is worth investing in a pizza stone. I previously had one bought from Jamie Oliver and it’s not too big and clunky to keep and works a treat. Ideally you would also need a pizza paddle. But when you don’t have that, try and use a baking tray or similar flat surface to transfer the pizza to the hot pizza stone.
Preheating
For the best results you will need to heat the pizza stone in advance in the oven. To make the transferring easier use plenty of semolina under the pizza dough so it will slide easily from the baking tray onto the baking stone.
Alternatively you could make mini pizza’s as those are so much easier to handle. And probably just as delicious.
The pizza ended up having a delicious thin and crispy crust and I loved it. So the key to loving pizza I now learned is making your own pizza dough. Follow the recipe from Marcella Hazan below and you can’t really go wrong!
Check out these pizza recipes as well:
Basic pizza dough
Ingredients
- 1,5 tsp active dry yeast
- 250 ml lukewarm water
- 375 gr plain unbleached flour
- extra virgin olive oil 1 tbsp for the dough, 1 tsp for the bowl and some for the finished pizza
- 0.5 tsp salt
- a baking stone
- a bakers peel paddle
- semolina flour
- Put the yeast into a large bowl and dissolve it completely with about a quarter of the lukewarm water. When dissolved, add one third of the flour and mix thoroughly with a wooden spoon. Then as you continue to stir, gradually add 1 tbsp of olive oil, the salt, another quarter of the lukewarm water and another third of the flour. When putting in flour and water for the last time, hold back some of both and put in as much of either as you need to make the dough manageable soft, but not too sticky.
- Take the dough out of the bowl and slap it down very hard against the work counter several times (great stress reliever… 🙂 ), until it is stretched out to a length of about 25 cm. Reach for the far end of the dough, fold it a short distance towards you, push it away with the heel of your palm, flexing your wrist, fold it and push it away again, gradually rolling it up and bringing it close to you. Rotate the dough a one-quarter turn, pick it up and slap it down hard, repeating the entire previous operation. Basically you want to end up with a soft and pliable dough. Shape it into a round ball.
- Grease the inside of a clean bowl with olive oil and place the dough inside. Cover with clingfilm and put the bowl somewhere quiet and warm so it can rise in peace for about 3 hours. Longer is fine too.
- At least 30 minutes before you are ready to pop the pizza into the oven preheat the oven to 230 C/450F. Sprinkle the baker’s peel generously with cornmeal. Take the risen dough out of the bowl and divide in half. Unless you can put two pizza’s at one time in your oven, put the other half back in the bowl and cover again until you are ready to use that part.
- Flatten the dough as thin as you can opening it out into a circular shape using a rolling pin but finishing with your fingers. Leave the rim somewhat higher then the rest.
- When it is the desired shape, put the circle of dough on the – with cornmeal covered – baker’s peel.
- Put the topping of your choice on the dough and slide it, jerking the peel sharply away, on to the preheated baking stone. Bake for 20 minutes or slightly more. until the dough becomes coloured a light golden brown. As soon as it’s done drizzle with a little but of olive oil and serve.
Disclaimer
The nutritional values above are calculated per portion. The details are based on standard nutritional tables and do not constitute a professional nutritional advice.
20 comments on “Making pizza dough from scratch”
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How clever to improvise with a stone grill! Your pizza looks especially good with all that cheese.
Simone these look perfect! I love making my own pizzas and often look for a great dough recipe. I MUST try these for sure.
I love just coming here and looking at your photos 🙂 That said, that pizza is the bombdiggitybomb! What I would give for a slice of that, wait, just give me the whole dang pie! Beautiful job, Simone!
Mmmmm, it looks great! I know where you’re coming from, for years I thought of pizza as decadent comfort food: not necessarily junk food, but not gourmet food, either. And then I started dating an Italian… 🙂 Now, we make pizza all the time, usually divided with different combinations of toppings.
(Oh, and just to answer your question on my blog (because my blog doesn’t have a “reply to comment” function, grrr): filet americain isn’t really known in Canada. You can easily order steak tartare at a restaurant, but it’s not the same. When I think of filet americain, I usually think of the pre-seasoned, slightly gloopy raw meat you can buy at the supermarket in Belgium (and probably Holland, too?), which you can use as a sandwich spread or whatever. They definitely don’t sell that around here.)
I LOVE pizza! I have a pizza stone, but I always have trouble with the dough–I want it thinner and crispier than it turns out. This recipe looks like it might be the answer. Thanks!
I think a lot of fast food outlets have killed the idea of a good Italian pizza, because they put all kinds of Americanized rubbish on it. A good Italian pizza with the best fresh ingredients is hard the beat!!! You score 100% for your attempt!!!
I am not a big pizza fan either, but there is something very gourmet about Italian pizza as opposed to the American style. I love the fact that it is not heavy and you can feel each ingredient separately. I manage to make perfect pizza without a pizza stone, but your idea to use the stonegrill was really good!
We love pizza and have it about once a week, but I have yet to really get into making my own. The closest I come is spreading olive oil on pita bread, grilling it, then topping it and grilling it some more until the cheese melts. I really need to try my own from scratch. I’m adding a pizza stone to my wish list.
Mmmmm, looks fantastic- way better than delivery!!! I think making your own pizza dough is so rewarding….a delicious end product!
Well it looks delicious, I haven’t made pizza from scratch either but some people have been asking to do it, thank gosh you found it easy!
I live above a cupcake shop and get the same question all the time, now you can answer what I do… “sure I eat them all the time, I make my own!”
So glad you tried and I think individual pizza would be great to try. My husband could eat pizza every day of his life, especially this one.
Waw,…your pizza looks just perect to me!! Your pictures sing to me too,…
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMM,….just pure indulgence!! A job well done!
I think your pizza looks awesome! Living in New York we eat a lot of pizza but only after finding a place that suits are taste. There are a lot of mediocre pizza places around here. Sometimes making your own is the best way to go. The best pizza I ever made at home had garlic and olive oil (no red sauce) and then was topped with goat cheese, sliced cooked fingering potatoes and asparagus…delicious!
I love pizza and I think I never make it enough. We probably only have it once a month, totally not enough. I always prefer homemade pizza though. I have yet to find good takeout.
Really perfect pizza! And now you’ll be making it all the time now that you know how delicious it is! I love your toppings. Mmmmm.
not a big pizza fan? Our friendship is over 🙂
Were you not a Daring Baker when we made pizza a while ago? that was so much fun.
Yours looks great.
I’m off to dinner in a few minutes, and this has made that much more hungry! Sounds delicious!
I haven’t made pizza dough in a long time. I may have to try out this recipe next time. Lovely pizza and photo!
I couldn’t help but to stop by to say that your pizza looks absolutely yummy! And there is really nothing compared to home-made ones as well.
What do you do with the last third of flour? I have Marcella Hazan’s book, and it has the same information. The ingredients list 3-1/4 cups flour, but the recipe instructions use only 2 cups.