Sunday, November 8, 2015

Bubbly No-Knead Pizza Crust

I think my family let me have the bubbliest piece because they love me.

I ran across this recipe while browsing King Arthur Flour's blog Flourish a couple of weeks ago. The post was written by one of the KAF owner employees I met when I was there for a baking class--Julia Reed was assigned to take some pics in the Baking Education Center and she was such a warm person with a great sense of humor. At any rate, she titled this post "The Best Pizza You'll Ever Make" and it's true. I've made a LOT of pizzas in my day, and I really think this one was the best--and simplest. The crust got delightfully bubbly, crisp, and chewy, and it had a fabulous flavor all on its own. Then with the toppings...mmm. Just perfect. And the dough prep involved no kneading at all--just a little stirring, folding, and waiting. If you want to see a great tutorial with detailed pics of the process, click here. Below is how I did it, but know that I referred back to the Flourish post several times just to be sure I was on the right track.
So, if you're into pizza and want to experience an airy, bubbly homemade crust, you have to try this recipe. You just have to.


No-Knead Pizza Crust
    --adapted from Flourish/KingArthurFlour.com

Ingredients:
  • 4 cups King Arthur Unbleached All Purpose Flour, plus more for dusting (Note: I used half AP and half bread flour one time and it made this pizza even better.)
  • 1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
  • 1 teaspoon sugar
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 1 1/2 cup warmish water
Instructions:
Note: This pizza turns out best if you have a baking stone, or even better, a sheet of baking steel (which I do not yet have).
Mix all of the ingredients in a large bowl. Dough might look a little dry now, but it will turn gooey and wet over while it ferments/rises. Cover bowl and allow dough to rise 24 hours. 
When dough has risen and you're about 1 1/2 hours from wanting to eat pizza, preheat oven to 550 degrees Fahrenheit.
Turn dough out onto a heavily floured surface and cut in half. Working with one piece of dough at a time, stretch one end of the dough and fold over the middle third of the piece of dough. Then stretch the other end and fold over like a letter. Go to an unfolded side, stretch, and fold just like you did before, but with the opposite sides. Tuck all of the ends to the underside and place in a floured bowl. Cover. Repeat with the other piece of dough and allow to rise for 45-60 minutes.
Get all of your toppings ready. Line a pizza peel or underside of a baking sheet that will act as a peel.
Turn a piece of dough out onto a well-floured surface. With gentle fingertips, press and stretch dough from the center taking care not to squash the outer 1/2 to 1 inch of the circle you are forming. Then gently lift dough circle with your knuckles and allow dough to stretch with the force of gravity, gently moving your knuckles around the edge to stretch and enlarge the crust. Stretch to about a 12 inch diameter and then place on the prepared parchment. Cut the parchment in a circle about 1/2 to 1 inch larger than the crust.
I topped my pizzas with homemade pizza sauce, pepperoni, sliced mozzarella, Roma tomatoes, and fresh sliced garlic.
Slide topped pizza onto the baking stone/steel, turn oven to broil, and bake/broil for about 6 minutes. (Note: if your broiler is less than 8 inches from the pizza surface, don't do the broil, just bake at 550 degrees until bubbly and melty.)
Pizza will start to char on the top of the big, bubbly edges and cheese will be melted and probably start to brown.
Slide back onto pizza peel or inverted baking sheet, cut, and serve. Be careful not to burn you mouth.

Makes two large pizzas (approx 12-inches in diameter)

Right after mixing the dough, it's lumpy and kind of dry.
Surprising how wet the dough gets after 24 hours.
These dough balls are sitting for their second rise. See the original post on Flourish for more pics.
I've really been liking the sliced mozzarella that I've been using lately on pizza.
Can you hear the angels singing? Oh my goodness. So good.

21 comments:

  1. Man...I've heard you talk about this so much, so thought I'd make it for dinner. Then saw the 24 hour part. So.....I went for sour dough pizza crust. No surprise there, eh? I will try this because just the dough baked at your house was amazing!

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    1. Shoot. I should have had you over tonight, Sherri. I have a whole leftover pizza in my fridge. You are welcome to come over and have a piece if you want.

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  2. that doesnt look like a lot of yeast? is the amount correct?

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    1. I know it sounds like a minuscule amount of yeast, but because of the very long rise time, it is enough to get the job done.

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    2. thank you for replying. If i were to use 00 flour instead of AP how much would i use?

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    3. Ive never tried 00 flour, so I'm completely unqualified to give you a good answer, but I found a conversation at The Fresh Loaf that may be useful to you: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/38193/how-convert-regular-ap-flour-00-flour

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    4. thank you for your help!
      i enjoy a good pizza dough that bubbles on the crust. i'm giving yours a try tomorrow.

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  3. Made the original dough recipe yesterday (half this recipe) and baked pizza tonite. I just made one 15 pizza out of the dough and Baked it (not broil)at 550 on pizza stone for 10 mins. We thought it turned out great. Next time might broil for the last minute to char the edges a bit. Keeper recipe.

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  4. Hi. I live in Bolivia and crave real American pizza. They have pizza here, but you would not recognize it. I have tried soooo many different recipes for a good pizza dough and yours is the best. And that is saying something since I also live at about 8300 feet above sea level and your recipe works here too. Thanks for the recipe!

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    1. Oh my goodness! So sorry for the late reply. This is so great to hear! I'm glad I was able to pass along a recipe that works for you, and I had no idea that Bolivia is so far above sea level!

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  5. How does this dough freeze?

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    1. I've never frozen the unbaked dough. I have baked the crust so that it's just done and still pale, cooled it, wrapped it in plastic wrap and foil, and frozen that for later use. I just can't think of an occasion where I would want to freeze the dough...

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  6. I tried this crust the other day. It was worth the wait. Excellent chewy crust. Thank you.

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  7. I’m wondering if yours is 3 cups or 4 cups flour? You say 1 1/2 of a two cup recipe but the directions say 4 cups…. Wondering if I made it with too much flour?

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    1. Hmmm. That's a great question, and I even confused myself with what I said here. I'm going to delete this little note now and just let the recipe be what it is.🙄

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  8. Any idea if this will freeze well? And which part of the process that should happen? I'd love to use this for freezer meal prep.

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    1. I've tried freezing this crust, and my main problem has been I make it too big and it's hard to fit into a gallon sized zip top bag. Other than that, it does pretty well and tastes pretty good after being frozen. And when I say this I mean I've baked the crust and frozen it without toppings.

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  9. The texture and flavor of this dough was wonderful! It was so easy I can’t think of a reason to get take-out pizza (unless you don’t have time for the rise). The recipe is a keeper!!

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  10. I've been in the quest to find the perfect home made crust and have to say... this is it! Pizza perfection. Thank you

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  11. Does the dough rise for 24 hours in the fridge? Thank you!

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    Replies
    1. It rises at room temperature, not in the fridge. :)

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