(Adapted from the following sources: Smitten Kitchen, Series Eats, Artisan bread in Five Minutes a Day by Hertzberg and Francois, and Michael Greenberg’s blog.)
This recipe makes enough for two people to share for dinner.
1 1/2 cups (185 g) white flour (you can substitute whole wheat for up to half of the flour)
1 teaspoon salt (7 g)
3/4 teaspoon (~1.5 g) active dry yeast
1/2 cup (118 g) lukewarm water
1 tablespoon (10 g) olive oil
Stir dry ingredients together, including yeast.
Add water and oil and mix until dough forms a ball. You can do this using a stand mixer and dough hook (low speed) or by hand. If working by hand you may need to knead to actually form a ball.
Oil the bowl with a little olive oil, return the dough and turn once to coat.
Cover and allow to rise for 1-2 hours.
After the rise, refrigerate dough until almost ready to bake. Anywhere from a few hours to overnight is fine.
1 hour before baking remove dough from fridge and let stand. This will let the dough return nearly to room temperature.
Put a heavy, cast iron griddle pan in the oven, smooth side up, and set the oven to preheat as high as it will go. This should get you an over between 500 and 600 degrees. You’ll bake the pizza on the cast iron.
25 minutes before baking punch the dough down. Don’t violently punch! Just press the air out gently. Let the dough rest.
5 minutes before baking stretch dough into a thin circle on a piece of parchment paper. Aim for dough about 1/4 inch thick. It’s ok to cheat and use a rolling pin. Flour the rolling pin and work surface to prevent sticking.
Slide the parchment paper and dough onto a cutting board or pizza peel.
Top the pizza.
Slide the parchment and pizza on the hot griddle plan and bake for about 1 minute, 45 seconds. Baking time will vary with oven temperature, and may exceed five minutes in a cooler oven.
This is a basic pizza dough recipe, altered in two ways. First, the dough rests in the fridge, which lets the dough slow-ferment, and also lets you prep ahead of time. Second, dough is baked on a very hot griddle pan. This approximates the high heat of a wood-fired pizza oven.
A note on yeast: Jeff’s been making the above recipe using active dry yeast. You may be able to get an even lighter dough with instant yeast or by hydrating active dry yeast (i.e., mix active dry yeast with water than add with wet ingredients). More experiments to follow.
This dough also makes a flavorful dinner roll. Prepare the dough as above then bake as follows: Preheat oven to 550 with a pizza stone on a middle rack and a jelly roll pan (or similar) on the bottom rack. You want a hot oven, so plan for about 45 minutes of preaheating. Form 2oz balls (about 5 per recipe) of dough, then place balls on a parchment covered baking sheet. Cover the dough balls and allow them to rest for about 20 mintutes. Immediately before baking, score the rolls by slashing each with a sharp knife or razor. Boil 1 cup of water (e.g., using the microwave). Uncover the rolls and place the baking sheet in the oven on the baking stone. Immediately and very carefully pour the hot water into the hot jelly roll pan, this will generate a lot of stream—don’t get burned! Bake rolls for about 8 minutes, or until centers are 190 degrees.