I have really been enjoying Jim Lahey’s No Knead pizza dough recipe (an 18 hour adventure). Mark Bittman, in this week’s Dining Section, revealed his pizza dough recipe (food processor + 2 hours). This dough is much easier to handle (I rolled it out like pie crust), topped it and baked it off on a stone in the oven. Below is my adaptation of Mr. Bittman’s recipe. Always know that the amount of liquid you add to make your dough depends upon humidity levels, etc. With a bit of practice, you’ll develop a feel for when to add more and when to hold back.
Final pizza ready to cut into non-traditional slices/shapes and serve
Ingredients
- 3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, or more as needed, plus more for kneading
- 2 teaspoons fast-rising yeast
- 2 teaspoons salt, plus more for sprinkling
- 3 tablespoons olive oil, plus more as necessary
- 1 cup warm water (no hotter than 105 degrees)
- 1 russet potato, skin on, sliced very thinly (mandolin works great here)
- Rosemary leaves, removed from the stems, enough to cover the pizza
Procedure
1. Put the 3 cups flour, yeast, 2 teaspoons salt and 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a food processor.Turn the machine on and add 1 cup water through the feed tube. Process until the mixture forms a slightly sticky ball, about 30 seconds. If the mixture is too dry, add more water 1 tablespoon at a time and process for 5 to 10 seconds after each addition. If the mixture refuses to come together, add more flour 1 tablespoon at a time and process until it does.
2. Rub a little olive oil or sprinkle a little flour onto your hands and shape the dough into a ball; wrap in plastic. Let rest at room temperature until the dough doubles in size, 1 to 2 hours. Or, if time is tight, let it rest at least 20 minutes before proceeding. Or refrigerate for several hours, deflating if necessary if it threatens to burst the plastic. (Or divide in half, wrap each ball in plastic, slip into a plastic bag and freeze.) Let it return to room temperature before proceeding.
3. Reshape the dough into a ball and cut in half, forming 2 balls. (From here on, use olive oil if you’re cooking on baking sheets, flour if on a pizza stone.) Put them on a lightly floured surface (a pizza peel is ideal), sprinkle with flour and cover with plastic wrap; or brush then with a bit of oil and place on a lightly oiled sheet. Let rest for about 20 minutes, while you heat the oven to 500 degrees.
4. Press a dough ball into a 1/2-inch-thick flat round, adding flour or oil to the work surface as necessary. Press or roll the dough until it’s as thin as you can make it; let it rest a bit if it becomes too elastic. (Patience is your friend here.) You can do two baking sheets at once, or one after another, as you’ll have to if using a peel. If doing the latter, slide the dough from the peel onto the stone.
5. Sprinkle the pizzas with olive oil (just a little), salt and rosemary. Bake for at least 10 minutes, perhaps rotating once, until the crust is crisp. Serve hot, warm or at room temperature.If the top isn’t browned to my liking, I’ll turn the broiler on high and let it crisp up for 2 minutes.
Simple ingredients yield a delicious result
Stone ground cornmeal on a peel help dough to slide on/off the stone
This is a very forgiving dough and rolls out easily
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