Here is a great recipe for a pizza crust. It does take a little bit of time so you have to plan ahead, but a majority of the time is just spent waiting for the dough to rise.
This recipe uses two methods to get the dough light, crispy, and easy to digest. It starts with a biga, which is a pre-fermentation process obtained by mixing flour, water, and yeast. A biga helps a lot with dough quality and flavor.
The second method is called autolyse which consists of mixing flour and water and letting them rest for 45 minutes before adding the rest of the ingredients. This process helps accelerate the development of gluten, making the dough lighter and easier to handle. I usually make the biga the day before because it needs to rest for 16 hours. The autolyse only needs to rest for 45 minutes.
Once the dough is formed, it needs to rest for 90 minutes. After you divide the dough into pizza balls, they must rest for four more hours. As you can tell, it is time-consuming, but the actual time working hands-on is minimal, but the end result is so worth it.
Buon appetito!
Alessandro Lo Stocco’s Pizza Dough Recipe
Equipment
- Pizza stone
- Pizza Peel
- Pizza Cutter
Ingredients
Biga
- 375 g 00 flour
- 180 g water
- 1 g yeast
Dough
- 375 g 00 flour
- 382 g water
- 18.5 g salt
- 18.5 g Biancolilla Sogno Toscano Olive Oil
- 1 g powder malt
- 1 g yeast
- Semolina flour for dusting
Instructions
- To start making the biga, add the yeast (1gr) to 180g of room temperature water. Let the yeast dissolve and set aside for a couple of minutes. Measure 375g of flour in an airproof container.
- Add the water/yeast mixture and combine for three minutes making sure to not form a dough. Mix until all the water is absorbed.
- Close the lid tightly. It needs to be an airproof container otherwise the biga will dry out and will not ferment properly. Let it rest at room temperature for 16 hours.
- At the 15-hour mark, you can start preparing the autolyse. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a hook, add 375g flour with 382g of water. Mix on medium speed to combine for two to three minutes. Wipe down the sides of the bowl with a spatula and run the mixer for three more minutes. Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel and let it rest for 45 minutes.
- After 45 minutes, add the biga and the yeast (1gr) and run the mixer at medium-low speed to form a dough. After three minutes add the salt and run for three more minutes. Then slowly add the olive oil and run the mixer on medium speed until the dough is all combined and very smooth.
- Move the dough in another container, drizzle with some olive oil to prevent the dough from sticking too much. Cover tightly and let it rest at room temperature for 90 minutes.
- At this point (after 90 minutes) you'll have to divide the dough. I like to use the scale and divide the dough into five balls, 250g (more or less) each.
- You can put them in the same container you had the dough in before. Cover it and let it rest at room temperature for four hours.
- Preheat the oven to 550F. While making pizza, it helps if you have a pizza stone, otherwise you can use a baking tray. It also helps to have a pizza peel to easily get the pizza in and out of the oven.
- Dust a good amount of semolina flour on the counter. Move one pizza ball on the flour and dust more semolina on top to cover. This will help the stretching process.
- Now flatten the dough into a disc without pressing too close to the border. You want to leave at least one inch of crust. Use the middle three fingers on each of your hands to press the dough out from the center, widening that flat disc into a large circle about 6 inches across. Carefully pick up the dough and hold it with both hands on one edge of the dough, letting the rest of the dough hang down. I like to have the top of my pizza dough facing towards me to keep an eye on thickness. Gravity is going to do some of the stretching work as you gently rotate the dough in one direction, like turning a wheel. Slowly pull the dough from hand to hand as the dough hangs down. Working quickly, stretch the pizza until it’s about 11-12 inches in diameter and about 1/3 of an inch thick.
- Carefully move your stretched pizza dough to your pizza peel or sheet pan.
- Top the pizza with your favorite toppings and bake in the oven for five to six minutes.
