Mountain Top Pizza Party, Part 1: The Dough

We had a pizza party this past tuesday, amid the chaos of the giant glassblowing job.  It was a chance to see friends and eat pizza, what is actually currently considered the best pizza in the city by many people.  I know I've mentioned it before in articles, but I'll share it finally, here on Steemit.  This current recipe I use is one I've adapted from the recipe found in the awesome cookbook, Secrets of the Best Chefs.  It's got a flavorful, thin, crispy but sturdy crust.  I make a homemade sauce now featuring tomato leaves, which truly takes the sauce to the next level.  This will be shared in the next part of the series.  Finally, we topped the pizza with lots of different toppings, which will be shared in the last bit. 

Pizza dough ingredients are simple.  Flour, salt, yeast, water and a tiny bit of sugar is all you'll need. The sugar is there to help with the browning of the crust, as it helps things to caramelize. 

This is the starter to the pizza dough you make the night before you intend to make the pizza.  I didn't take pictures because I honestly did it late at night and forgot.  I was so tired I nearly forgot to make the starter at all! It's simple though, put 2.5 cups of flour and 2.5 cups of water with 1 tsp of yeast in a large bowl.  Mix thoroughly, it should be around the consistency of pancake batter.  This is a preferment that will add lots of flavor to the dough.  It will also break down gluten to make it much easier for people to digest. Cover and leave to set overnight. It'll be foamy and will have a slightly sour smell by the morning, that smell is the good part. 

The next morning, or at least 7 hours or more before when you intend to make pizza, add the sugar and salt to the starter.  Add flour, bit by bit, mixing to combine thoroughly each time you add flour.

Continue to add flour in small amounts until you have a thick ball of dough.  As the dough gets thick, you'll need to knead as you add flour.  You want a soft ball, but not a sticky one.  If a bunch of the ball tries to stick to your hands when you pick it up, add more flour.  Once you've got it the right consistency, knead it for a few minutes until it's very stretchy.

It should look something like this when it's done. 

Put a little olive oil in a bowl.  If you've happen to got a giant clay pot common in a mexican kitchen, these are great for this process.  Add oil to the bottom and put the ball of dough in the bowl.  Flip it so it's coated in oil. Set it in a warm place out of the way for several hours.

After awhile, you'll notice it's risen over the top of the bowl.  It might even be billowing over.  This is good, just uncover, punch down the dough and recover.  Leave for more time.

It'll continuously do this rising process until you make pizza.  Just keep punching it down and it'll rise back up.  That's the proof of the yeast doing their job, which is partially to break down the protein gluten, which is tough for many people to digest.  A properly fermented (which is what you're doing with the yeast) wheat dough could even be eaten by a person with high gluten sensitivity without them having a lot of issues. 

So there you have, it, part one of my pizza party.  It makes about 5-6 pizzas depending on size.  If you don't use all the dough the first day, just put it in sealed container into the fridge.  It'll last there up to three days or in the freezer up to a month. It's the base of the pizza, simple, although it always keeps everyone coming back.  One of the first things I learned to cook when I set out as a chef was pizza, partially because I didn't believe homemade pizza could be as good or better than from a restaurant.  I quickly proved myself wrong.  I've worked with variations of this recipe over the years, one thing always remaining the same:  there's always an incredibly long rise time.  The pizza just doesn't taste the same without it. I will not make a quick pizza dough at this point, I nearly consider it a waste of resources when something so good is so simple.