You guys. I’m just gonna go ahead and do it. I’m sharing one of my biggest kitchen secrets in this post. My most highly requested recipe. The meal that I probably make for guests most often. The meal that I make every.single.dang.Friday.
Today, I give you my pizza recipe.
Today is not the day that I go all nice and gluten free. Today is not the day for all things paleo. Today is about pizza night, and that’s a topic we take rather seriously in our house. You see, we work pretty hard to be able to do whatever the heck we want on the weekends. I mean, burning the candle at both ends Monday through Thursday is totally worth it to me if I get to just have fun on the weekends. No weekend trips to the grocery store. No laundry. No cleaning. Even when I was working (ahem, before I became a stay-at-home mom and stopped getting paid for working), this was the case, and it’s how I like to keep it!
So, by Friday night, the Hubs and I are toast. We stay in. We wear yoga pants. We watch our current Netflix show or a movie. And we eat pizza. In fact, my husband has requested an email by noon on a Friday if for some strange reason we are not having pizza on a Friday night. He would be so disappointed, he needs half a day to wrap his mind around it. On Fridays, his coworkers leave wishing him a happy pizza night. It’s kinda a big deal for us.
So, here’s the thing. Yes, gluten is not a good thing for my thyroid (or my skin or my digestion). Yes, that is true, and I know it. But, I’ve found that if I stick to a high fat/low sugar, mostly gluten and dairy free, reduced grains diet most of the time, then when it comes to indulgences that I just really love (like pizza night), I feel pretty okay. And ya know what? I’m okay with that for right now.
And here’s the other thing. We kind of can’t even imagine ordering pizza in or getting a frozen pizza at this point. Maybe once a year this idea sounds great, and we splurge and order a pizza (or there was the time I had a bit of a mishap on pizza night, nearly burned down our condo complex, and we ordered pizza after the smoke died down). But then we both feel so sick for about the next half a day, that we realize it was never worth it. And also, well, not to toot my own horn or anything (toot, toot!), but this pizza is just better! (Wait, real food tastes better? Huh…it’s like I keep saying that or something…) I don’t know what all they put in those sauces (besides a ton of sugar…they’re too sweet!) or in those crusts (besides more sugar…no wonder you can’t stop at one slice), but even with the gluten, I know we are making a much better choice eating pizza at home because I know exactly what’s in it (no MSG, chemicals, preservatives, and only a teensy bit of sugar to activate the yeast!).
Now, I have plenty of tasty, unconventional pizza combos up my sleeve which I’m happy to share with you in future posts, but first, you just gotta know how to make this crust! I used to buy refrigerated pizza dough at Whole Foods when we lived in Denver. They had this multigrain variety which was really quite tasty, but then we moved to Michigan, Whole Foods became a thing of the past (but not now! Welcome, Friend!), and I had to come up with another option. Now, even with Whole Foods moving in down the street, I’ve stuck with my homemade crust because it is tastier and a boatload cheaper. I think they sell their refrigerated dough for about $5 a pop here in town (it was $4 in Denver), and, well, pizza night can get kinda expensive pretty fast if you’re always buying that dough (or you invite guests and make 2 or 3!).
So, onto the recipe, shall we? But first, you need two very important tools:
- A pizza stone. I got mine as basically the best wedding present of all time, and it’s certainly served me well. I bake bread on mine, too. If you want your crust to crisp and not get soggy, please, please get a pizza stone. I found this one which looks pretty similar to mine. I like a big, rectangular one that gives me plenty of real estate for whatever shape my pizza ends up turning into.
- A pizza peel. This is also pretty essential, but you could use a cookie sheet in a pinch. I make enough pizzas that the peel is just super helpful for sliding my pizzas on and off the stone without burning myself in the 500 degree oven. ‘Cuz that’s always good.
Alright, and now we finally get to the recipe (but, come on, you needed the back story and also a million parentheses…). (I should cut back…)
- 2¾ c. lukewarm water (warmer than room temp but not hot!)
- 1 T. dry yeast
- 1 T. cane sugar
- 1 (heaping) T. kosher salt
- ¼ c. olive oil
- 6½ c. all-purpose flour
- Combine the water, yeast, sugar, and salt in a large bowl and stir with a wooden spoon to combine. It doesn't have to be completely dissolved, but I do try to dissolve most of the yeast.
- Add the olive oil and stir a bit.
- Dump in all the flour and stir to combine. I use my hands to combine the last bits of flour with the water mixture. No need to knead!
- Cover with a kitchen towel and allow to rise for a minimum of 2 hours and a maximum of 3 hours. When risen, the dough should double in size.
- Put the pizza stone on the lowest rack of the oven, and preheat the oven to 500 degrees.
- Use a plastic knife or spatula to slice the dough into three pieces.
- Pull out one of the pieces of dough and form into a ball by wrapping the outside edges under (don't stress, just make a ball in about 5 seconds).
- Roll the dough ball out onto a floured surface using your hands and/or a rolling pin. I usually start with my hands, picking the dough up to work out any lumps, and then finish with the rolling pin if I want a bigger, thinner crust.
- Transfer the dough onto the pizza peel lined with parchment paper (don't skip the parchment paper or it will be a bit of a nightmare trying to put it in the oven!).
- Top the pizza as desired.
- Slide the pizza off the pizza peel and onto the stone (with the parchment paper still underneath the pizza).
- Bake for 5 minutes, remove the parchment paper very carefully, and then bake for an additional five minutes or until the crust is crisp and golden.
- Slice, serve, and never order delivery pizza ever again.
A few recipe notes…
- If you’re only making one pizza, you can form the remaining dough pieces into balls, place in quart size bags, and put them in the freezer. I do this all the time. The frozen dough balls take about three hours to thaw on the counter on baking day, but you may be able to put it in the refrigerator the night before and then pull it out to come to room temperature for about an hour on baking day. I’ll check on that.
- Frozen dough balls will not yield as thick of a crust as fresh dough, but they are still insanely tasty.
- I used to use this same recipe to make four pizzas, but the Hubs said the pizzas were too small. I guess it depends on the hunger levels of your people. We are not only tired on Friday nights, but apparently we are also quite hungry.
- This recipe is adapted from the uhhh-mazing book “The New Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day.” I highly, highly recommend this book for making the most delicious breads you’ve ever eaten with next to no effort at all.
So what do you think? Going to give it a try? Send any questions my way in the comments below!
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