Artisan Pizza

Pizza is loved by everyone. Whether you are a healthy eater or a more indulgent one, young or old, gluten free, vegan or keto, red sauce, white sauce or no sauce at all… someone is making a pizza recipe for you. It is loved around the world and something that anyone can make at home, exactly how they love it.

Many people are intimidated by the thought of making their own dough and although there are some great pre-made pizza doughs in your grocery store, the flavor and texture you get out of a great handmade pizza dough is unsurpassed and totally worth the time.

This King Arthur recipe creates an exceptional crispy, chewy and flavorful crust… perfection AND it requires no kneading at all. You simply combine the ingredients, allow them to rest at room temperature for 24 hours and then you can store this rested dough in your refrigerator for up to a week, making pizza night quite flexible. It is a simple, flexible recipe that turns out fabulous every time.

Let’s get it started…

To start this pizza dough, you will need 500 grams of all purpose flour (or about 4 1/4 cups spooned and leveled), 1/4 teaspoon of instant yeast, 1 teaspoon of granulated sugar, 2 1/2 teaspoons of salt and 370 grams of warm water (just under 1 3/4 cups at 110 degrees).

*Note: I highly recommend weighing the flour and water out for this pizza dough. If you use 500 grams of flour and 370 grams of warm water, it will turn out exactly the same every time.

Combine all of the ingredients in a large bowl and mix until just combined (photo above). The dough will be shaggy and a little rough looking and this is exactly what you want. You are not looking for a smooth dough, so don’t overmix the ingredients. Cover this bowl tightly with plastic wrap and let it sit at room temperature for 24 hours.

After the 24 hour rest, you can go right ahead and make the pizza then, but if you are not ready to make the pizza or would like to give it more time to develop flavor, transfer the bowl into the refrigerator. It can chill for up to a week. I think 3 days in the refrigerator is perfect, but if you want pizza tomorrow, it is still super delicious being made immediately following the 24 hour rest.

Once you are ready to make the pizza, remove it from the refrigerator (if it you had chilled it) and preheat your oven to 500 degrees. Once we divide the dough, it will still need a short rest, but preheat your oven when you start, so it has plenty of time to come to temperature.

*Note: If you are using a pizza stone, be sure to put it into the oven before you turn it on. A pizza stone can crack if you place it directly into a super hot oven. If you have never used a pizza stone, I would recommend looking into them. You can get them pretty reasonably priced through Amazon or Bed Bath and Beyond and they help to create a great crust throughout the base of your pizza.

Generously flour your work surface and transfer the dough onto it. If your dough feels really sticky, dust the top of the dough with flour too. Divide the dough in half using a pastry cutter or sharp knife.

Our next step is to shape the halves into rounds using a stretch and fold technique. It is not complicated, just dip your fingers in some flour and working with one half at a time, start by gently stretching the “top” of the dough out a bit (photo below)…

… fold the end the you just stretched back over into the center of the dough…

… now stretch the “bottom” of the dough out in the opposite direction and then fold that over creating a three layer fold…

Now, we are going to repeat this same fold working with the other ends. So if we had just stretched and folded the “north” and “south” ends of the dough, we are now going to stretch and fold the “west” and “east” ends of the dough, so that in the end, all four corners have been stretched and folded back into the center of our dough ball.

The dough is really soft, so even though the dough will look sort of compact in the three layer stage, it will easy stretch out when you gently pull on the “west” side…

… gently stretch it out about 4 inches or so and then fold it over to the center…

… stretch the “east” side out and fold it over the rest of the dough and then gently pick up the dough and tuck any sides under that are not neat forming the dough into a round ball.

Repeat the process with the second portion of dough. Transfer the shaped dough balls into separate flour bowls, cover with plastic wrap and let them rest for 45-60 minutes while you prepare your toppings.

After your dough takes a little nap, transfer one portion onto a floured service (keep the other half covered for now) and gently press it out into a round shape using floured finger tips.

Continue gently working the dough out from the center. Be careful not to press on the outer edge of the dough (where the crust will be). The more you leave the crust alone, the more puffy and chewy it will become during the baking process.

*Note: If you have trouble working the dough out thin enough, you can pick the dough up and using a fist shaped hand, allow the dough to droop over your fist and stretch out a bit. Don’t let it stretch out so thin that it breaks though! BUT… if it does happen to break, do not cry (it has happened to everyone at some point), you can pinch the dough closed before applying your toppings.

The recipe makes two 14″ or 15″ pizzas, so shoot for somewhere around this diameter while you are shaping your dough.

Place the dough onto a sheet of parchment paper (or inside a pizza pan or on a sheet pan) and apply your toppings. Before you transfer the pizza into the oven, trim the excess parchment paper from around the dough so it doesn’t burn in the very hot oven.

One important step in maintaining the crisp integrity of your pizzas crust is not over topping your pizza. About 1/3 cup of a nice thick marinara is good for a 14″ pizza (leaving an inch to inch and a quarter crust).

Today, I topped one pizza with about 14 pepperonis, 4 thin slices of prosciutto (torn in half and “coiled” over the marinara) and 4 ounces of freshly shredded mozzarella. This one was “mine” and then I made the other for my husband. “His” pizza had about 1 cup of shredded chicken, a few thinly sliced sun dried tomatoes and 4 ounces of freshly shredded muenster cheese. He loves kale, so I will be adding a bit of kale to his pizza too.

*Note: If you have never put kale on homemade pizza before, you need to add it half way through the bake, so it doesn’t burn. The pizzas will be cooking for a short time at very high. temperatures, so adding the kale when the pizzas have 3 or 4 minutes left will ensure that it is cooked, but not burnt.

Bake the pizzas in a preheated 500 degree oven for about 10 minutes. If you are using a pizza stone, carefully slide the pizza off of a cutting board and onto the pizza stone using the parchment paper under the dough. If you are using a pizza pan or baking sheet, transfer the pan into the oven. The pizzas should be baked on the center rack of the oven and one at a time, unless you happen to have an extra large oven.

If your pizzas crust is not golden brown nearing the 8 minute mark, turn on the high broil setting and allow the broiler to blister and brown your crust and toppings. Watch it carefully while the broiler is on and remove it as soon as it achieves your desired color.

As soon as I remove my pizzas from the oven, I like to brush the crust lightly with melted butter. This ensures that the crispy crust doesn’t become hard and gives it even more flavor. This step is optional, but highly recommended…

Shred a little fresh parmesan over the hot pizza and sprinkle with some finely chopped parsley and you are about to be in for quite a treat…

This pizza is incredible… like really, really incredible. The melted cheese, the crispy shredded chicken and slightly crunchy kale just come together in a delicious way. The pepperoni and prosciutto pizza is also fantastic, but I am rarely surprised when something containing prosciutto is tasty.

The crust is really the star of this show though. Look at those air bubbles! They give just the perfect amount of chewiness to this crust that continues all the way into the very center of each pie.

If you love pizza and are interested in making your own pizza dough, this recipe would be a great place to start. With no kneading and exact ingredient measurements, you can have confidence in the fact that you will have one (or two) super delicious pizzas in the end.

Buon appetito!