This pizza is one heck of a crowd pleaser. Anything that rises for a long period of time is an absolute pleasure to work with and this pizza dough is no exception. The dough is crisp, but soft when baked to absolute perfection. You can turn this dough into the snazziest, most topping-heavy pizza in existence, or keep it simple and treat it like a focaccia. It’s totally up to you, and it all starts with a perfect slow-rising dough. Put on your patience pants, you’re in for a wildly inactive 24-hour ride.
Ingredients
Dough
2 cups warm water
2 tsp. Sugar
2 tsp. Active Dry Yeast (or 1 packet)
1 tbsp. Salt
600 grams Flour (about 5 cups)
Toppings (this is what I do, but top as you please)
Tomato Sauce
Wedding Hot Sauce
Garlic
Soppressata
Mozzarella
Rapini
Directions
As is always the case with yeast, first we must activate it. In about 1 cup of warm water, mix in your sugar and yeast. Let it sit, covered, for about 5 minutes, until nice and frothy.
In a large bowl, add your flour, salt, remaining warm water and newly activated yeast. Mix and knead with your hands until fully combined. Once it’s formed into a nice ball, cover your bowl with a clean kitchen towel (or plastic wrap) and let your dough rise and double in size (1-2 hours).
Once your dough is done rising, coat a large sheet pan with olive oil. Using a brush to evenly coat the pan is quite helpful! Turn your dough out onto the pan, coat the top with more olive oil and gently begin to spread it out to cover the entire surface of the pan. This could take a while and your dough might be quite elastic and may bounce back when you don’t want it to. If that’s the case, just let it rest for about 5-10 minutes and then try again. It will get there, I promise you!
Once it’s fully spread out, cover completely with plastic wrap (or a same sized sheet pan if you have) and let it rest in the fridge for 12-24 hours. Personally, I go the full 24 hours for the second rise. The flavour is next level, but if you don’t have enough time for that, I still strongly suggest you meet the minimum 12 hours for the rise.
Preheat your oven to 450℉. Once your rise is complete, your dough will be so bubbly and tall and beautiful!
It’s now time to add your toppings! I always do wedding hot sauce (an olive oil based sauce with hot peppers) and freshly mandolined garlic slices as my base. Then add tomato sauce, soppressata, rapini and cheese.
Bake for 20-25 minutes, until the edges are crisp and the cheese is starting to brown.
Slice and serve hot.
TELL me that’s not the best dang pizza you’ve ever had.
I would recommend reheating in the oven (bake at 350℉ for 5-7 minutes) so the crust remains crispy. If you microwave, it’ll go limp!
If you're more of a visual person, check out the video below illustrating the recipe step-by-step with tips and tricks peppered in. Video Length: 3:04
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