Refrigerator Pizza Dough
Our weekly whirlwind of school, work and chores leaves little time for the slow pleasures of assembling bread dough and letting it rise for hours. But we do love freshly baked pizza! This dough a make-ahead Sunday afternoon project that gets it second rising in the refrigerator. Then on Wednesday night you can roll it out and instantly create your own home made pizza masterpiece. All in less than 30 minutes.
1 1/4 cup warm water
1 package yeast (1/4 oz)
1/2 teaspoon sugar
2 Cups all-purpose white flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/3 cup extra virgin Olive Oil
Extra flour for kneading
Corn meal
parchment paper
pizza stone for the oven
ON SUNDAY
In a heat proof measuring cup combine the water, yeast and sugar. Stir it well and wait for about 5 minutes. The surface of the mixture should begin to foam indicating that the yeast has been activated. In a separate large bowl mix flours and salt. Form a well in the middle of the flour mix and pour in the Olive Oil so that it resembles a small pool nestled in the center of the flour. Then slowly being to pour the water/yeast mix in as you gently stir the mixture to combine the flour with the water and oil. Don’t move to fast but stir steadily and strongly with a durable wooden spoon. If you have an electric mixer and a bread hook attachment you can also use this machine to mix the ingredients.
Once everything is combined you should have a silky dough ball. Turn the dough ball out of the bowl an onto a floured work surface for kneading. Knead gently for about 8 to 10 minutes, adding flour, working to make the dough supple and elastic. If you are using an electric mixer, let the bread hook do its work for about 8 minutes and be sure to add a bit of flour if needed. Return the completed dough to its original bowl and cover with a towel. Set the bowl in a warm place for an hour to rise.
When the rising of the dough is done you are ready to move it to the refrigerator. If you like thin crust pizza, break your dough into 3 separate balls and store each one in a plastic zip lock back. For a thicker crust pizza you can break this dough into 2 balls but be sure to use the larger size of bag. This allows room for a slow second rise of the dough in your refrigerator. The dough will last for up to a week when refrigerated. I usually write the date on a piece of masking tape to mark the bags of dough. Anything more than 7 days old gets tossed.
ON PIZZA NIGHT
When it is time to make pizza just remove the dough from the fridge and turn it out onto a floured working surface. Gently stretch out the dough into an 16 inch flat pizza shape, using extra flour to keep it from getting sticky. I don’t use a rolling pin because I believe it make the pizza tougher but you are free to use a rolling pin to roll out your crust if you like. When the dough has been shaped flat, tear off a piece of parchment paper slightly larger than the pizza and scatter corn meal across the surface of the paper. Roll up your pizza dough and then unroll it onto the corn meal covered parchment paper.
Unless you happen to own a traditional Italian wood-fried oven, you will need to preheat your kitchen oven to 525 degrees and be sure that your pizza stone is in the oven. The stone provides a heated surface to place the pizza on, crisping the underside wonderfully. Top your pizza with whatever sounds good to you and then place it in the oven on top of the pizza stone. Bake for 10 minutes or until the crust edges are golden. Remove your pizza from the oven and cool for a few minutes before serving.
One pizza serves 2-3 people.