The pizza made by following these steps is at least as good (if not better) than what you’d order in a restaurant. Here’s the list of things you’ll need to achieve pizza excellence:
Equipment
A food scale (doesn’t need to be anything fancy)
A large mixing bowl
Five 9” pie pans
Cling wrap
Ingredients
800 grams bread flour
20 grams salt
8 grams yeast
540 grams warm water
5 grams of sugar (optional)
16 grams olive oil
Butter for greasing the pans
Whatever you want for toppings
Instructions
Weigh and mix the dry ingredients in your large bowl. Add your water and olive oil and use your hands to mix it all together. You’ll be left with a large sticky blob of dough which, in theory, should be 1,389 grams.
Let the dough rise in the bowl overnight. The next day, divide that big dough lump into smaller dough balls of roughly 275 grams and drop each one in the middle of one of your greased pie pans. Cover each doughy pan with cling wrap and let them sit at room temperature for 2-4 hours. Suppress the urge to play with the dough (both in the bowl and in the pie pans). Giving the dough time to rise is key to making this recipe work. If you leave it alone, it’ll puff up and give your pizza crust a restaurant quality texture.
Your dough balls will flatten out and fill the bottom of your pans. If the dough hasn’t quite filled the bottom on its own, use your fingers to massage it to the sides. As you handle the pie plates, the dough may deflate a little. That’s OK.
Add whatever sauce, cheese, and toppings you want. My preferred application is easy sauce, lots of bacon, pineapple, and a mix of cheddar and mozzarella cheese. For additional crunchy deliciousness, spread cheddar cheese right to the edge of the soon-to-be crust.
Preheat your oven to 550°F. If your oven doesn’t go to 550°F, set it to its highest temperature.
Once the oven is hot, bake your pizzas for 13-15 minutes. If you’re making plain cheese pizzas, it’s probably closer to 11-13 minutes of cooking time.
Pull your pizzas out of the oven and give them a few minutes to cool before gorging yourself. Enjoy while marveling at how smart that girl from the internet is (me!).
If you don’t make all five pizzas at once, you can leave them covered and stick them in the fridge for a couple of days. If you were blessed with an abundance of self-control, the dough can be stored in the freezer indefinitely.
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We're Val and Paul and we're a married couple who live on BC's Sunshine Coast! We moved from Alberta to Gibsons in 2014 and love our life on Canada's West Coast! Subscribe to our YouTube channel and email newsletter and you'll learn what it's like to live in the most beautiful place in Canada.