My quest for the perfect pizza base has ended. I have browsed and browsed and browsed through several recipes and pages of information on what it takes to get that perfect pizza crust – thin, light, soft on the inside and crisp outside. I don’t even remember half the sites I’ve browsed through. And I believe I have finally hit on the method and recipe that delights my pizza cravings to no end.
For a thin, crisp, light crust, this is what I gathered and I can confirm based on my experience:
- The Dough needs to be loose and not firm.
- Dough does not need kneading. Pizza bases are not breads. Whisking in one direction while forming dough is enough.
- Add more sugar or honey for better flavour.
- Cold fermentation or an overnight stay in the fridge for the dough helps (and it helps a great deal)
- Pizzas need not be tossed. A dough that can be stretched with the palm or rolling pin on a flat surface where more flour can be incorporated works wonders.
So this fine day when I was craving for pizzas I decided to put all of this research to some use. I made a wet dough, added a whole tablespoon of honey and let the dough sleep in the fridge. It worked – and it helped a great deal to get the crust I’ve always wanted in my home oven.
Makes: Two 12 inch Pizzas
Ingredients
For the Base/ Crust/Pizza Dough
- Water – 1 cup
- All Purpose Flour – 2 1/2 cups (plus extra for dusting)
- Corn Flour – 3 tbsp
- Sugar – 1 tsp
- Honey – 1 tbsp
- Active Dry Yeast – 2 tsp
- Salt – 1 tsp
- Olive Oil – 3 tbsp
- Dried Herbs of Choice – 2 tbsp (optional)
For Topping
- Sauce of choice – 2 tbsp (or Olive Oil)
- Toppings of choice – 1 1/2 – 2 cups sliced and sauted (tossed in 4-5 tbsp of sauce of choice if you like)
- Cheese of choice – 1/2 cup (grated) (or 6 tbsp for each pizza)
Method
- Warm 1 cup water. Water that you can dip your finger in is warm enough. Dissolve the sugar, add honey and yeast. Let it stand for 5 minutes. Dissolve the yeast.
- Mix All Purpose Flour, Corn flour, Salt and Basil. Dissolve one cup of the flour mix to dissolved yeast. Add the second cup and combine by whisking in one circular direction with your hand. Add the remaining flour and whisk into a dough. Add the olive oil 1 tbsp at a time while combining into dough. The dough will be loose but well combined and smooth. The dough is not kneaded.
- Divide the dough into two. Cover and let it rise in a warm place until doubled. This should take about 1-2 hours.
- Flour the pizza pan. Preheat oven to 250 degrees C.
- Take one portion of the dough onto the pizza pan and using your palm pat into think circular disk till it covers the pan. You can use a rolling pin. Dust with flour while stretching. If the dough bounces back, let it rest for a while and stretch. Cut out any extra edges. The edges of the base should be slightly thicker. Using a fork prick all over the base.
- Spread 1 tbsp of the Sauce. Spread Toppings. Bake for 10 – 15 minutes or until the crust turns golden or cheese starts to brown. Or bake the base for 5 minutes. Take out spread the sauce and toppings and bake for an additional 5 to 15 minutes. Your method will depend on choice of sauce/ toppings (the amount of water or liquid content) and how hot your oven can get.
- Take out from oven and let pizza cool down before transferring to serving plate. Repeat with the remaining dough.
- Slice into pieces and serve.
Notes:
- You can safely replace half of the All Purpose Flour with Whole Wheat Flour and get the same results. Whole Wheat absorbs a lot more water. Add enough water to make a loose dough.
- Dough kept overnight in the fridge and rested about an 1 hour outside before baking produces better results. Reduce yeast to 1tsp in this case.
Pizza Dough Recipes from other blogs:
- Jugalbandi’s Wicked Whole Wheat Pizza Crust
- Raaga’s Whole Wheat Herb Pizza
- Beth’s Pizza Dough
Cool crust, looks really good! Enjoy. Glad you are baking a lot these days!:))
I just realized that I haven’t posted many Pizzas except Spinach Alfredo Pizza at Aroma although I have many Pizza cookbooks!
I will after I come back in September! Two more weeks to go for my vacation. YAY!:)
Yohoo!! U did it babes! the *perfect pizza crust*. Thanks for the notes. 🙂 ..Looks yummy..:D
Hugs,
Siri
Yummy Pizza Lakshmi…Perfect indeed!!!
Nice one…:)
Thanx for ur support on my blog lakshmi. Hope this ends soon.
this mobiforumz site is also a part of wordpress i guess. Thats wt it says. Can u tell me how u contacted wordpress. So that i can contact them and see if anything can be done. I have reported to gooogle anyways.
Lets see what happens
There really is nothing quite like making pizza at home, is there?
The crust looks delicious!! Nice post! 🙂
Nice tips Lakshmi..What a coincidence.Yesterday only I made Pizza from William Sonoma Baking book.They too asked for overnight resting in the Refridgerator..Thank you so much for the wonderful tips..Next time I keep this in mind before making pizza
This is sound advice which I will follow carefully. Thank you.
Oh my, does that look professional and perfect or what – love the way the capsicum is arranged and the cheese slides over!
Lovely pizza…
Lakshmi , The notes on the pizza dough were very informative. Glad that we can replace half of it with whole wheat . Is it possible to do a completely whole wheat one instead of the all purpose ? I would love to make it more often , the reason being we dont need to knead the dough and just whisk in one direction !
wohoo… congo laks… and it looks perfect… u know i dont like very thin crusts in pizza and urs looks perfect… ur bro n cousin mite have had a gala time haan
WOW! This looks so yummy!!!
And hey you never mentioned that you used wasabi…that was great right…do update..hheeheh..
Dear aunty,
I just added your beautiful website to my blogroll. Please check out my blogspot:
http://4krsna.wordpress.com/
All glories to Vennaikku koothaadum Krishnan!
Keep up the good work…
Krishna
lakshmi, thanks for the link on the dough.. it was very useful. I am all set to make a pizza now!!!
[…] of research and experimentation carried out by Lakshmi who is obsessed with pizzas. It has been posted at The Yum Blog (her other blog) […]