I made the best pizza of my life last week. The reason: I took time and care when shaping the pies. I used to be in such a hurry, I burst the air bubbles in the dough. I’m reformed! Never again.
I’ve come to believe in these key methods: 1)Let the dough rise overnight in the refrigerator; 2)Use parchment paper under each pizza; 3) Put the cheese UNDER the sauce (thanks, ATK); Bake one pie at a time on a pizza steel at the bottom of a 500 degree oven. Do not use the convection/fan setting which will diminish the crustiness of the bottom of the pie. Because ovens vary, you may have to bake at 450 degrees or even, once you’ve baked a few, 425. Adjust as you go. 4) Allow the dough to reach room temperature before shaping and press it gently and over about an hour into circles.
Six 10-11″ pizzas:
Combine 1 3/4 cups warm water with 2 tsp dry yeast–let sit until yeast dissolves (5-10 minutes) whisk in 2 Tbs. extra virgin olive oil.
In a food processor fitted with the dough blade, combine 600 grams of bread flour or all purpose, plus 25 grams of spelt (or white or regular whole wheat). Organic flour protects you (somewhat, because there’s the problem of wind on fields) from glyphosate poisoning; glyphosate is an herbicide widely used in the US and banned in Europe. You can use all bread flour. The high protein bread flour makes the crust chewy and the spelt adds flavor. Add 5 grams of salt (a scant teaspoon) and process until blended. With the machine is running, slowly pour in water/yeast/oil mixture, and process until the dough comes together in a ball. Let rest 15 minutes. Process again until the dough is smooth. Place the dough into an oiled bowl and cover, then let it rise in the refrigerator at least 8 hours and up to 24.
Place the baking steel on the bottom rack or on the bottom of the oven itself. Remove the other racks from the oven so it’s easy to maneuver. Preheat to 500 at least 1/2 hour before you start to bake.
An hour or so before you want to bake, remove the bowl from the refrigerator and cut the dough into six pieces. Gently create six round balls of dough and allow each piece to rest on a square of parchment dusted with semolina, corn meal, or flour. Just using a pizza peel to move the pizzas into the oven was too tricky for me; sometimes the dough stuck to the surface and wouldn’t slide. I let the dough rest for 10 minutes, then gently press the ball of dough into a flatter shape with higher sides. Repeat about five times until the circles of dough are 10-11 inches wide. Cover the pizza dough with shredded Italian cheese. (I like Trader Joe’s Quattro Formaggio which contains shredded fontina, asiago, parmesan and provolone–all more flavorful than mozzarella–and without cellulose, a wood pulp fiber added to other packaged shredded cheeses to prevent clumping.) 8 ounces will cover six pizzas. I used to use more, and then discovered I liked them better with less cheese.
Use an angled spatula to spread a 50/50 mix of marinara and crushed tomatoes on each pizza, yes, OVER the cheese in the center, leaving a 1/2 inch to one inch rim. Using all marinara is too salty and using just crushed tomatoes is too bland. Spreading the sauce over the cheese gives the cheese a chance to bond to the dough (including the edges) and prevents it from slipping off when you take a bite after it is baked. Putting the sauce on top also allows some of the moisture in the tomato to evaporate, intensifying the flavor. You could put basil leaves under the sauce, too (as in the photo above) but I think fresh basil tastes better scattered on the pizza AFTER baking. Use about 18 ounces of sauce on the six pizzas. You can let the pizzas rise for another 15 minutes, or you can start baking as soon as they all have been covered with cheese and sauce. The extra rise makes makes the edges (especially) more puffy.
Since you’ve put each pizza on a separate piece of parchment, it’s easy to slide each one onto the baking steel into the preheated 500 degree oven. A pizza peel or a rimless baking sheet works well to slide the pizzas on and off the steel. Bake about 11-13 minutes–the edges should be brown, and if you lift the bottom of the pizza, the bottom should be brown too. The other pizzas will be fine waiting to bake.
A pizza steel will last forever. Since I put one in my convection oven, I no longer have to rotate cookie sheets when baking cookies to avoid burning the ones on the bottom rack. I leave the steel in the oven, because it’s heavy and also because it makes the oven more efficient by holding heat.
Natasha Saje 