Pizza Dough Recipe

After leaving Brooklyn, I never found a pizzeria that made really good pizza. Either too soggy or the sauce wasn't cooked. It was always something. Anyway, I finally decided to try to make my own dough. I already knew how to make gravy. So, the only thing missing was the dough. I've had folks tell me that the reason for bad pizza was because of the water, the yeast, the flower, the altitude and so on. I just couldn't believe it. Try this recipe...see how you like it. I tried leaving the dough in the refridge for 5 days, wrapped in plastic wrap, undoing the wrap every so often to accommodate the expansion. The dough took on a really nice taste and texture. Just try it and send us an email...good or bad.

4 cups good quality all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups of warm FILTERED water
1 tablespoon Kosher salt
1 tablespoon yeast

In the mixer bowl, put the flour, salt and yeast. Stir it around with a spoon. Then, with the dough hook on the mixer, start on the lowest mixer speed. As the mixer is spinning, add the water, little by little. The consistency that you want is moist, but not wet. Almost sticky. In other words, you can touch the dough with your hands with little or no dough sticking. But, remember, the dough must not be hard. Anyway, mix it with the dough hook for about 5 minutes, increasing the speed until the dough hook "slaps" the dough ball against the bowl. Remove the dough from the bowl, sprinkle a little flour over the ball. Shape evenly and then try to divide the ball into halves. You can them separate the halve into halves. I like to make 12" pies. These little quarter balls do nicely. Just use the halves if you want a larger pie. After you separate them, wrap them in plastic wrap. Don't be stingy with the plastic. Remember, this stuff is gonna expand. Put one layer of plastic and you will have a mess. Just wrap the ball good, a couple of times. Place in the refrigerator for at least 24 hours. Like I said before, I like the way the dough come out after 3-4 days. On the fifth day I made a calzone with 4 quarter balls. IT WAS SOO GOOD. When you get ready to make your pie or calzone, heat the pizza stone at 500 degrees for at least 1 hour. I guess it depends on the stone, but mine takes about an hour before it's ready. I prepare the dough by shaping it and putting a semolina and grits mix on the bottom. Then, I place it on an aluminum pizza pan that was sprayed with Pam. When the stone is ready, I place the pan on the stone for about 5 minutes after which time, I use the peel to slide the pie off of the pan and on the stone. Everything is done in about 20 minutes. Prepare yourself for the smell. Oh, my!! It's just a wonderful aroma.

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