A Pizza Dough Journey

Within the last couple of months I have been on a quest to find the quintessential pizza dough recipe. My definition of the perfect pizza crust is best defined at New York Pizza Pub here in New Braunfels. It’s relatively thin, though not cracker crunchy thin, a little bit chewy, yeasty, and has a lovely char from their wood-fired oven. It’s a great local joint to have in our small town and I recommend a trip there just to try it. I hear they even make their own sausage (note to self to try that in the future)! There have been good ones, all purpose flour ones, plain ones, bread flour ones, pizza flour blend ones and outstanding ones and it’s definitely been a tasty journey.
In all my baking years I have been a big fan of King Arthur Flour, so one of my early dough recipes came from a bag of King Arthur Perfect Pizza blend flour. I figured I could trust their many years of experience in the flour/dough/baking areas and that it would be a slam-dunk with this combination of flour and recipe. While good, I was a bit disappointed. Definitely not the chew I was craving and it was just, well, plain.
So, what’s a girl on a pizza crust quest to do? Hit the interwebs for guidance and advice. A simple Google search for “chewy pizza crust” led me to The Fresh Loaf: A Pizza Primer. The recipe looked like many I had tried before but I liked the additional tips and pointers on getting it to your happy place. I have adapted the original recipe to my tastes and came up with this. A wonderful method I learned from my mother was to give the dough (any yeast dough for that matter) a nice slow, cold rise in the fridge. I subbed bread flour (King Arthur, of course) for all purpose and it made all the difference here. Having the extra dough balls in the freezer made it the perfect convenience food for those nice nights on the patio, too.
Simple Pizza Dough
Adapted from The Fresh Loaf: A Pizza Primer
Yield: 4 10” pizzas
5 cups bread flour
1 Tablespoon sugar or honey
2 teaspoons salt (or 3 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt)
1 teaspoon instant yeast
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 3/4 to 2 cups room-temperature water
Measure out all of the ingredients and add them to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Mix at low speed until all of the ingredients are combined*. Let the dough rest about 3 minutes and check for moisture. If it’s too dry add more water a tablespoon at a time until all ingredients are incorporated and it feels a bit tacky to the touch. The dough should still pull away from the side of the bowl. Turn the mixer to medium and knead for 5 minutes.

At this point the dough needs to rise. You can a) turn the dough out into a oiled bowl, cover with a clean towel, and let it rise in a warm, draft free place until it has doubled in size. Divide the dough into four equal portions and roll or stretch each portion into a 10 in. circle. Proceed with your favorite pizza topping and cooking methods (more on that in my next post) If you have more time, say 8-24 hours, let the dough rise in the refrigerator for even better flavor and chew. Or, b) place the dough in a lightly oiled zip top freezer bag and throw in the freezer for future use. Take the frozen dough out of the freezer about 24 hours before you need it and let it thaw/rise in the refrigerator. Divide the dough into four equal portions and roll or stretch each portion into a 10 in. circle. Proceed with your favorite pizza toppings and cooking methods (again, more on that in my next post).
*You can do this by hand without a heavy duty mixer but you better have strong arms and lots of will power.