Pizza Dough III

Slowly my pizza dough is improving. It is now tender and crisp. I still have problems getting the pizza off the palette and onto the stone, but that's a matter of practice.

The more I make pizza, the more I realize that a great crust is as much about technique as it is about ingredients. I have to take my time. This isn't a recipie that produces pizza in under an hour. And I have to go slow to make sure the crust is thin. I use a rolling pin and I dust with flour every time the pizza dough becomes sticky.

This should be enough dough for 4 8'' pizzas.

Ingredients...
2 tablespoons sugar.
2 teaspoons Kosher salt.
1 tablespoon pure olive oil.
3/4 cup warm water.
1/2 cup whole wheat flour.
1 and 1/2 cups bread flour.
1 teaspoon instant yeast

Mix together and kneed. I kneed it in my stand mixer for 15 minutes. If the dough sticks too much, then scrape it into a ball, sprinkle the ball with flour and keed some more.

Put the dough in a lightly oiled dish. Cover and let rest in the fridge for 24 hours. I've read several "Worlds Best Dough!" recipies and all of them have this rest stage. It is important for the dough to develop and soften up.

When the dough has rested, take a quarter of it and make it into a ball.

I raise the dough in a microwave.

I put a cup of water in the microwave and nuked it on high till the water was boiling and the interior of the microwave was steamy.

I set the dough ball on a plate, covered it with a wet cloth and microwaved it for 20 minutes at 10% power. I checked plate after 10 minutes to ensure it wasn't too warm or dry.

Next, I rolled out the dough. I went slow. I started the dough with a rolling pin. And I dusted the dough with flower every time it got sticky.

It is important for me to to start with a rolling pin. While it is romantic and authentic to roll out pizza dough with only your hands, a rolling pin is fast, easy, more consistant and no one will taste the difference.

I rolled out the dough till it was as thin as the rolling pin could make it. Then I let the dough rest for five minutes and rolled it some more. I went slow.

Then, I dusted the dough with flower and finished stretching the dough out by hand. In the end the pizza was thin, so thin I could almost see through it.

Again, I dusted the pizza palette with four and corn meal. Put the pizza dough on the pallet, lightly cover with tomato sauce and the ingredients. The operative word is lightly. Too much water from the sauce or ingredients and the pizza will be soggy.

Baked at 450F for 10 minutes. Next time I'll try 500F.