This is based on J. Kenji López-Alt’s New York Pizza recipe. His recipe makes three pies; we only ever make two crusts. It is well worth reading the original and following his link to the windowpane test to make sure you have good gluten development.
Oil the insides of two 32 oz. lidded containers (I tend to use quart-sized deli rounds) and set them aside.
Into the bowl of a food processor, put
- 15 oz. / 425 g. bread flour (~ 3 c.),
- 1 Tbsp sugar,
- .23 oz. / 6.6 g. kosher salt (~ 2 tsp.), and
- 1⅓ tsp. instant / rapid rise yeast.
Pulse to combine.
Add
- 2 Tbsp EVOO and
- 10 oz. / 283.3 g. lukewarm water.
Run the processor until the dough forms a ball that rides up along the side of the bowl (~15 seconds) and then continue for that much time longer (~30 seconds total).
Turn out onto a lightly-floured surface, knead a couple of times (feel free to check the dough by using the windowpane test), cut the dough in half, form into balls, and put them into the oiled containers. Refrigerate for one to five days, checking every now and again that the lids haven’t been blown off the containers (don’t ask me how I know that this can happen).
At least two hours before needed, take the doughs out, punch them down, reform the balls, drop them pinched-side down back into the oiled containers, and let them warm and rise on the counter until doubled in volume.
After this, it’s nearly the same instructions from the Thin Crust recipe, but for convenience, I’ll paste them in here:
[Insert two hours worth of music & other chores here.]
- Place a pizza stone, cast iron bistro pan, or some other such item into an oven and preheat to 450℉.
- Punch down the dough.
- Get out some parchment, sprinkle with semolina (I switched from corn meal and like the texture slightly better), and place a dough ball onto it. With fingers & knuckles, work the ball out into a rough disk (feel free to pick it up by the edges and let gravity do some of the stretching), then start rolling out the dough from the center, shifting 90° with each stroke.
- When the dough is ~13", sprinkle with a bit more
corn mealsemolina, - prick all over with a fork,
- flip,
- brush with olive oil, and
- top with desired toppings.
- Transfer to heated stone or iron in the oven. (I slide a thin metal pizza pan underneath the parchment, just set the parchment with the pizza down on the hot stone or iron, and slide the fake peel out; the parchment makes a convenient tool for removing the cooked pizza from the oven and for containing the mess when cutting and serving.)
- Bake for ~12 minutes,
- check for desired browning of the crust, and either leave in for a bit longer or
- take out, cut, and serve.
