Ingredients
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450 g (approx. 1 lb.) Heritage White Flour or Heritage Pizza Flour
1-2 tsp Sea Salt
300 g (10-12 oz.) warm water - temperature 75-80 degrees F (chlorine free)
1/2-1 tsp dry active yeast
Directions
In a large bowl, measure the flour. Add the salt and mix to disperse. In a separate bowl, add the yeast to the warm water (75-80F). Mix to disburse lumps. Let sit for a few minutes or until foamy on the top.
Using a Danish Dough Whisk, or large spoon or fork, stir the water and yeast into the flour mixture. With wet hands, knead the dough for 3-5 minutes.
Cover and let sit on the counter for 1- 2 hours. This is proofing time (the dough is rising). It will rise more quickly if the kitchen temperature is 70+F. if it is less than 70F it will take longer which is the reason for the 1-2 hour range.
Scrape dough out onto a lightly floured counter and begin shaping your pizza dough balls. Divide the dough into the desired sized balls by weight, approximately 1 ounce per inch for thin crust pizza. (i.e.12 ounces to make a 12 inch thin crust). This recipe will make 2 ½ 12” crusts, or three 9” crusts. Round them into balls, cover, and let rest 1-2 hours or until the dough balls double in size.
Heat the oven and pizza stone to 450F for at least 30 minutes. Make sure your stone is rated for high heat
Now the dough balls are ready to be made into crusts. There are several ways to do this including pressing gently into a flat round and tossing in the air, or holding the flat round in the air by the edge and turning letting gravity help shape them. Rolling them with a rolling pin removes all the air and rise you’ve cultivated so it is not the desired method. We shared a video on how we shape our pizza dough on our Facebook page, otherwise there are many examples on YouTube.
Use a pizza peel or back of a baking sheet dusted with flour (rice flour works best. Cornmeal tends to get gooey and burn onto a stone). Gently lay your stretched crust onto it and add your toppings. The more quickly you work at this stage, the easier it will be to get the pizza onto the stone into the oven.
Bake 3-4 minutes. Watch carefully as ovens bake differently and they can overbake. When the crust is brown and the cheese is bubbling in the middle, it’s done.
Recipe Note
The dough balls can be made up the day before and put in the refrigerator in a covered container. The next day take them out and let them proof for 1-2 hours until they are nearly double in size. The extra long or proofing in the refrigerator adds flavor.
Tips: Use your judgment and adjust if you need to to get a workable pizza dough. Make sure the dough balls are proofed close to doubled in size before shaping into crusts. If you over-proof and the dough becomes limp and sticky use more flour when handling and shaping into a crust. If your crust tears when you are shaping it, roll it back into a ball and let it rest for 15-20 minutes to let the gluten redevelop. Then you can shape it into a crust again.
Thanks for the tip on rice flour!
I’ve never had success with cornmeal so I use a piece of parchment paper to (slowly, no need to rush) top my stretched dough and transfer to the pizza stone in the oven. After 3 minutes or so I can shimmy the pizza off the parchment and continue cooking directly on the stone.
Could you please address when you’d use the range of yeast called for? And the range of salt?
In what situation would it make sense to use less yeast? In what situation would you recommend using more?
Thanks!
Can I freeze it? Love your product, by the way!
If you refrigerate the dough balls in a covered container, do you proof them on the counter beforehand for the 1-2 hours, or do you put them in the fridge right away and then proof them for 1-2 hours before baking the pizza? Thank you!
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