The Best Ever Pizza Dough

Pizza is one of those things that everyone has tried and I would even bet everyone loves. The reason is that pizza is so diverse and is really just a blank canvas that you can paint with whatever flavors you feel like. They can be savory, sweet, big, small, deep dish, thin crust, etc. But one thing they all have in common is the pizza dough itself. No matter what type you are making you always start off with a dough and go from there. And for me the dough is the most important part of a pizza. If the base you are starting with is no good it will spoil the rest of the ingredients you pile on no matter how good they may be. My wife and I were given a bread book (Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a day) for Christmas one year and one of the first things we wanted to try was making pizza. Now they have a very simple master dough recipe in this book that they use for the basis of a lot of the breads, and for pizza as well. For me when I am trying a new recipe I always follow it the very first time and if I feel like changing something I will make notes while cooking. So I followed the recipe and whipped up a batch of the dough. The next day we made pizza, can't remember what kind, and while it was good there was something lacking we felt. Not one's to waste dough we used the remainder to make some breads. Now don't get me wrong the dough was not bad it was just not right in our eyes. So I set out experimenting with the recipe, adding things, subtracting things, and just playing around. And let's be honest who can complain about playing around with a pizza dough recipe, I mean everytime you try a new recipe you just have to make a pizza! I think after about 4 or 5 tries my wife and I agreed that we had finally gotten it right. The funny thing about all this trial and error is that pizza dough is a super simple recipe but just little changes can make all the difference with the end product. The ingredient in mine that made all the difference is no secret ingredient or something complicated and is probably in the kitchen of anyone who reads this, and that is Honey. Yep honey, that lovely golden stuff gifted to us by bees. Before settling on honey I had tried olive oils as well, both high quality and one's I use more for cooking. The dough was not bad but it had a slighty off putting flavor in our oppinnion that tended to take something away from the final product. Now with the honey I didn't want the dough to come off as being sweet so the amount I added to the dough was crucial. What I ended up with was substituting a 1/4 cup of honey for a 1/4 of the water. With this amount the dough is not sweet at all but it does wonders for the end product, the little added sugar helps the crust form a nice color and the taste is wonderful. And the good thing is that if you want you can also make some simple breads with this as well, like a Boule, Ciabatta, or even Focaccia. So I really do hope you enjoy this simple yet tasty recipe as much as we do, happy pizza making! Oh, and of course I will have some actual pizza recipes to put up as well.

Ingredients (Makes 4, 1 pound balls)

2 3/4 Cups Luke Warm Water

1/4 Cup Honey

6 1/2 Cups AP Flour

1 1/2 Tbsp Kosher Salt

1 1/2 Tbsp Yeast

Method

1. Add the honey to the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the dough hook. Heat the water in the microwave until it is luke warm, about 105 degrees or so

2. Add water to the honey in the mixing bowl and swirl around with a fork or spoon to disolve the honey into the water. While swirling the water add the yeast and break up any clumps that may form

3. While the yeast blooms in the water measure out the flour and add the salt to the flour, once all measured out dump the flour and salt into the mixing bowl

4. Start the mixer on low to slowly incorporate the flour into the water. After a minute or so adjust the speed to medium, about 5-6 on a Kitchen Aid mixer and let it go for about 10 minutes. The dough should start to form a ball and pull away from the sides

5. Transfer the dough to a container cover with a towel and let rest on the counter for at least 2 hours, longer if your kitchen is cold. You can safely leave it out for up to 5 hours if need be

6. Once dough has at least doubled in size it is ready for pizza. I reccommend chilling it in the fridge first as it is easier to work with when it is chilled. The dough will be good in the fridge for about 10-12 days