This is, truly, the most flavorful pizza dough with the perfect texture of a crunchy crust. Semolina flour is added to all-purpose, and it made all the difference from any other home-style pizza crust I’ve tried. I used a couple of King Arthur Flour “secret” ingredients, which I believe transformed what could have been good pizza to being fantastic pizza!
If I didn’t love my life in California so much, I’d be pounding on King Arthur Flour’s headquarters in Vermont– looking for a job with them. I love their products! I love their recipes, and I especially love their Blog. Their Golden Pull Apart Buns are amazing! I recently made their Puff Turnovers, which my son is begging me to make again. Pizza dough has been on my radar for some time. You see, I cannot help buying KAF’s wide array of ingredients and “enhancers” that they sell. Two products I bought, on my last KAF shopping spree, were their Pizza Dough Flavor and their Dough Improver. On Sunday, I finally decided to use a King Arthur Flour recipe for pizza dough. What I liked about this recipe was semolina flour plays a role in the dry ingredients. I already had semolina flour, from my successful experiment in making Semolina Gnocchi:
I used King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour, semolina*, King Arthur Easy-Roll Dough Improver (optional, but helpful), Pizza Dough Flavor (optional, but delicious), SAF instant yeast, salt, and olive oil, and cool water.
*If you don’t want to use semolina, use all-purpose flour, and reduce the water.
Mix and knead together all of the dough ingredients–by hand, mixer or bread machine–till you’ve created a smooth, very soft, fairly sticky dough. Don’t over-knead the dough; it should hold together, but can still look fairly rough on the surface. Allow the dough to rise, covered, for 45 minutes; then refrigerate it for 4 hours (or up to 36 hours); this step will develop the crust’s flavor.
NOTE: My dough fermented in the fridge for two days, without any problems.
Tonight, I let this sit at room temperature for about an hour. I preheated a pizza stone at 450F, while I rolled out the door. I found the dough to be super easy to work with. Per KAF’s instruction, I eased the dough onto my hot pizza stone, and baked it for about 8 minutes. When I checked the crust, there was a bubble. I deflated it by poking it and flattening it, gently. For the toppings, I had made some homemade basil pesto (last week)…
…I had some Roma tomatoes. After par-baking the pizza crust, I drizzled a little olive oil, and then some pesto. I almost used fresh mozzarella, but instead…
NOTE: I’ve been asked why I par-baked the crust. The answer is, I didn’t want a soggy crust. Since then, I have purchased a baking stone that I preheat to 475F. I roll out my pizza dough on parchment paper, add my toppings and, using a pizza peel, I can slip the unbaked pizza onto the hot stone. The hot stone makes the bottom of the pizza nice and crunchy and I never have soggy pizza again! (A pizza peel makes this easy, but you can make your pizza on parchment paper on the flip side of a large baking sheet.)
I’m ready to bake this for about 10-15 minutes, at 450F. I kept a sharp eye on it, though…
The Ultimate Pizza Dough
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour* 7 1/4 ounces
- 1 1/4 cups semolina* 7 1/4 ounces
- 2 tablespoons King Arthur Easy-Roll Dough Improver (optional, but helpful) 1/2 ounce
- 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon Pizza Dough Flavor 1/4 ounce (optional, but delicious)
- 1 teaspoon instant yeast
- 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
- 2 tablespoons olive oil 7/8 ounce
- 1 1/8 cups to 1/4 cups cool water 9 to 10 ounces; use the lesser amount in summer, the greater amount in winter (and something in between in spring and fall)
Instructions
To make the dough:
- Mix and knead together all of the dough ingredients¬–by hand, mixer or bread machine–till you’ve created a smooth, very soft, fairly sticky dough. Don’t over-knead the dough; it should hold together, but can still look fairly rough on the surface.
- Allow the dough to rise, covered, for 45 minutes; then refrigerate it for 4 hours (or up to 36 hours); this step will develop the crust’s flavor. Make sure you have the dough in a large covered bowl, or put it into a large, lightly greased plastic bag; leave plenty of room for expansion.
- Remove the dough from the refrigerator, and allow it to rest and warm up a bit while you prepare the toppings.
To assemble and bake the pizza:
- Gently stretch and pat the dough into the pan(s). You’ll probably get about two-thirds of the way there before the dough starts shrinking back; walk away for 10 minutes. When you come back, you should be able to pat it all the way into the corners of the pan, or close to it.
- Allow the dough to rise for 30 minutes to an hour (or more, for thicker crust).
- Preheat the oven to 450°F. Spread the sauce in a thin film over the crust. Bake the pizza on the lower oven rack for 8 minutes.
- Remove it from the oven, and arrange your choice of toppings and cheese on top.
- Return to the oven, and bake on the upper oven rack for an additional 12 to 15 minutes, until the crust is nicely browned, both top and bottom. Check it midway through, and move it to the bottom rack if the top is browning too much, or the bottom not enough.
- Remove the pizza from the oven, and transfer it from the pan(s) to a rack to cool slightly before serving.
- For easiest serving, cut into squares with a pair of scissors.
- Yield: a dozen generous slices.
Notes
Oh goodness – a little bit of heaven in a pizza crust
Those holes and nooks in that crust are making me so hungry! It looks perfect, and I'm a huge crust lover.
That dough looks amazing! The crumb is gorgeous.
I am following your pizza dough recipe next time. Last time my dough barely poofed up at all! No good.
You got a nicely browned bottom crust on that. What a delicious looking pizza.
beautiful!!!
YUMMY!
That looks fabulous!! I make my own pizza using the Master Dough recipe from "Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a Day". I might have to try yours now. 🙂
Note to self: buy a pizza peel – LOL! I need a pizza peel too. Isn't it hard to get the crust onto the hot pizza stone w/out the peel?
Your pizza looks fabulous and I've got my eye on the pizza dough flavoring. Sometimes pizza dough doesn't have a lot of flavor and this would definitely help with that. Great post Debby!
Oh great, now I feel like a real looser for buying my pizza dough at the local pizza joint. This looks fantastic.
You might like to look into a pizza peel from Exo — http://www.superpeel.com — it is fantastic. King Arthur carried them at some point, so you know they're good!
Just a note to let you know that I just bought both the KA Perfect Pizza Flour Blend and the Pizza Dough Enhancer. I use the KA flour, but this is my first order with them. I'm excited to get it in the mail and give it a go!
I live so close to Vermont, that I'm ASHAMED I haven't made it there yet! King Arthur flour ppl, I'm a-comin'.
When I am in Seattle at the end of the month I will definitely try and find some King Arthur flour once again. The pizza crust looks amazing and I just love their site as well.
I've never made my own pizza. Is that pathetic or what? I keep saying I'm waiting for someone to buy me a stone.
KAF catalogs are addictive to me. I love the flours. I admit I haven't tried all of their enhancers and such. I'm dying to try their pie filling thickeners though. Apple pie would be less tricky that way.
I have used KAF Clearjel for pie thickener, and I love it!
Yum, this looks beautiful and delicous. I love the smell of freshly made pizza in the oven!
Beautiful! I just installed a warming tray which has a setting for proofing yeast dough, so I'm anxious to try different kinds of pizzas. I'm with you on Semolina. I like the grainy texture it adds.
Wow, now I have to order the Pizza Dough Enhancer. That looks delicious. You're right "a perfect crust".
Oh, and the Pizza Dough Flavor. By the waay I've never ordered from them (I use their flour and yeast from the grocers), how long do you usually wait for the shipment? Thanks, Carla
KAF products come to me pretty quick. TIPS: #1 they often offer free gifts with a purchase of $60.00 or more. I google for KAF coupons, and often find an extra 10% off!
all I can say is wow!! I love pesto on a pizza! 🙂
Debby, this looks so good. I have been wanting to make pizza for awhile now and I may have to give this one a try…your recipes are always the best!
Yummmm Great looking pizza!!
There's nothing like fresh homemade pizza! LOve the cheese mix too! Roz
The crust and the pizza itself look delicious. I wish I had a slice–or six about now. 😉
Wow! That's all I can say right now. Oh and that I'm a bit jealous that you seem to have found the perfect pizza crust.
I never heard of pizza dough flavor, this is new to me. I also love pesto on my pizza. I'll put in a good word for you at KAF next time I order something.
I love a simple tomato and cheese pizza- the pesto makes this even better!
I've made the golden pull apart rolls and didn't have that great of a success with them. They were good but if you don't use all the enhancers that KAF sells they're not the same 🙁
I'm a fan of King Arthur Flour too. Now I am going to have to order the pizza enhancers. Thanks for posting about this! Your pizza looks perfect.
holy cow, i just want to grab a slice out of the computer!
Just came across your pizza dough and had to comment. It looks delicious but one thing I found interesting is that you par-baked the crust before adding the toppings. Just wondering why as it's quite unusual to do traditionally. I'm guessing it makes the crust crunchier. Is that the case? Just curious!
That's a very good question, and I should have explained that. I did it to get a crunchier crust…and I found that when I par-bake the pizza dough, the tomatoes and pesto don't make the crust soggy. I hope that makes sense.