Artisan Pizza At Home

I haven’t met a pizza I didn’t like. Whether it’s frozen pizza, focaccia pizza, pan pizza, or straight from the local carry-out pizza, I just love pizza. However, because I love bread so much, my favorite pizza is the one where the crust is the star of the show, and the toppings can be anything I want. Enter the artisan pizza. Just what is an artisan pizza? Well, an artisan pizza can be any style of pizza, but it is made by hand with quality ingredients. Quality artisan pizza that you order at restaurants can be wonderful, but artisan pizza made at home can be just as good, or even better because you are tailoring it to your own likes and your family’s special requests.

Do you need a wood-fired oven to make great artisan pizza? Definitely not. Would it be nice? Yes, but most of us have a typical kitchen oven, and thankfully, we can make wonderful artisan pizza in it. Don’t be intimidated by the process because it is really so simple. It does take time to make good artisan pizza dough. However, the vast majority of that time is the dough sitting in the refrigerator, fermenting to achieve great flavor. The hands-on time is minimal and when you get used to the process, you’ll find that artisan pizza is actually a nice addition to your menu and your kitchen routine.

At the Flour Barn Bakery, in every class I teach, I always remind my students that with repetition, any task becomes easier. The first time you make artisan pizza at home, you’ll have to think about it and concentrate on the process. With time and repetition, it will become second nature and just a seamless part of your week. I can truly say that having artisan pizza in my routine makes my menu so much easier. If I always have pizza dough fermenting in the refrigerator, I always have a quick option for dinner. Let’s get started!

The crust

Making a delicious pizza crust is very similar to making any good yeast bread. We need to consider two important things: fermentation of the dough and gluten development. There’s so much science going on in a bowl of dough!

Fermentation

When we add yeast to flour and water, a magical thing happens. Our bowl of dough becomes a living thing! The yeast wakes up and begins to digest the carbohydrates in the flour. As byproducts. the yeast forms carbon dioxide and alcohols. The carbon dioxide is the gas that forms bubbles and allows the dough to rise. The alcohols, on the other hand, give our pizza dough that complex, sometimes sweet flavor we’re looking for. So how do we maximize fermentation? Time. This seemingly complicated process happens if we just leave the dough alone for a while, preferably in the refrigerator, to allow for a slow, cool rest.

Gluten Development

All flours that come from wheat–whole wheat flour, bread flour, and all-purpose flour–contain what we call gluten potential. In other words, when we add water to flour, two proteins, namely gliadin and glutenin, chemically react to form elastic strands called gluten. As we manipulate the mixture of flour and water by kneading, stretching and folding, or even just allowing it to sit for long periods of time, the gluten network becomes even more developed. That’s why bakers use the terminology “developing dough,” to describe their efforts to build a good network of gluten.

Why do we need a good network of gluten? In bread, or specifically pizza dough for the purpose of this post, we need a good network of gluten strands to trap the gas bubbles that have formed in the fermentation stage and allow a beautiful rise in the pizza dough. It would be a shame to create all that carbon dioxide in fermentation and then just let it escape, leaving us with a very flat dough. In addition to allowing our dough to rise adequately, gluten also gives pizza crust, bagels, and sourdough bread that lovely chew we enjoy. Again, for this pizza dough recipe, our hands-on time for developing gluten is very minimal. A few stretch-and-folds and then a cold rest in the refrigerator will both encourage the development of gluten.

now that we understand the science

Now that we understand the science behind really good pizza crust, let’s get started.

The Ingredients

• Flour: For this recipe, I use bread flour. However, if you only have all-purpose flour on hand, it will make a wonderful pizza crust. Bread flour has a bit more protein (remember those proteins that turn into gluten) than all-purpose flour, so it might just give you a little more rise, a little more chew. Again, don’t let not having bread flour keep you from making this dough! In fact, there are bakers who prefer it for their pizza dough, so try both, or a combination of the two until you find what texture you like best!
• Yeast: I use instant yeast for all my yeast doughs. It is so reliable and can be added directly to the flour. No need for dissolving it in water or “testing” it. I use SAF brand and it is the yeast we also use in the Flour Barn Bakery.
• Salt: Table salt is my choice for this recipe, mainly because it’s generally what we all have in our pantry.
• Water: Water at room temperature is perfect for this recipe. Remember, at warmer temperatures, fermentation is going to happen more quickly, but we’re going for a cold, slow fermentation with this dough. Also, if the water is too warm as we’re doing our initial stretch-and-folds, the dough may be a little more difficult to work with.
• Extra virgin olive oil: This ingredient is optional, but I highly recommend it, unless you’re making your pizza in a wood fired oven or an oven that can reach 800 degrees. In ovens that hot, the pizza finishes so quickly, sometimes in a minute or so, that the dough stays well hydrated. This is why the classic Neapolitan pizza generally doesn’t have olive oil in the recipe. However, in our home ovens at temperatures around 500 degrees, the pizza takes longer to finish, usually 7 to 9 minutes, and in that time, the crust can lose a lot of its hydration. Olive oil prevents the crust from drying out too much, and also lends some lovely flavor to the pizza! If you’re a die-hard crispy-crust pizza fan, I recommend leaving the olive oil out, as it does tend to soften the crust a bit.

The Process

• In a large mixing bowl, we’re going to combine the dry ingredients and mix them together just to fully incorporate. Add all the water and, with a wooden spoon, give the dough a good mix until it just comes together. Next, if you’re adding olive oil, add it now with the spoon or your hands, mix in the olive oil until you have a wet shaggy dough. I like to use my hands because I can really mix it well and I just like the tactile way of getting to know the feel of the dough.

• Next, cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a damp towel and allow to rest for at least 5 minutes. Allowing it to rest The dough needs time to fully hydrate the flour before we start our stretch-and-folds.
• With a wooden spoon or your hands, continue to mix the dough until you have a soft and supple dough. It will still be sticky and shaggy, so keep a bowl of water close to wet your hands to make handling the dough easier.
• Now it’s time to do the stretch-and-folds and really build some structure in our dough. Start with one side of the dough. Grab the edge of the dough working with wet hands, and stretch it up, away from the bowl. Stop pulling if you feel like the dough is about to break. Fold the dough back over and press it into itself. Turn the bowl a quarter turn and repeat this process three more times. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and allow dough to rest for 3 to 5 minutes. Repeat this stretch-and-fold series 5 more times. With each stretch-and-fold, you will see the dough change right before your eyes as gluten develops. The dough will become smooth, glossy, and elastic.

• Place dough into a container with a lid, or a gallon sized storage bag that has been sprayed with oil. Turn the dough to moisten all sides with the oil. Place in refrigerator for at least 24 hours and up to 72 hours.

Shaping the pizza dough

• The day you want to have pizza simply take the dough out of the refrigerator and divide into two pieces of dough for two 14-to-16-inch pizzas. Shape the dough into two balls and spray them lightly with baking spray. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rest at room temperature for 3 hours. Sometimes our schedules don’t allow for that much time, and that’s okay too. I’ve taken the dough from the fridge to the pizza pan and only allowed for an hour or so of rest and it still turned out really good, just not as puffy. Three hours is optimal, not essential.
• After the dough has rested, it will be springy and puffy. Use your fingers to dimple the dough ball and spread it out on a lightly oiled surface. You can use an oiled plate if you’re going to eventually transfer it to parchment paper before it goes onto a preheated stone or pan in the oven. If you plan to simply bake it on a pizza pan, then simply spread it directly onto the pan that has been sprayed with baking spray. Try to maintain a “crown” around the edge by only spreading the dough from the center out, avoiding pressure on the outer edges. Once the dough is the size you like and the thickness you like, you’re ready to top your pizza!

Topping The Pizza

• I’ve included a recipe below for a delicious pizza sauce that is both simple and delicious. Although it uses a lot of fresh garlic, adding red wine vinegar really mellows the rawness of the garlic to give this sauce a beautiful, bright flavor. Spread the sauce on the pizza dough, leaving the crown of the pizza bare. This will give you that lovely ring of slightly charred crust on the edges.
• Add your favorite toppings. I think nothing beats fresh mozzarella torn onto the pizza, but my husband thinks pepperoni is a must. Whatever toppings you love, go for it. That’s why homemade pizza is so wonderful–you can make it however you like it!

Baking

Bake your pizza at 500 degrees for 7 to 10 minutes, until the crust is nice and brown on the bottom. It should have some visible browning on the rim as well. If you want more charring on the “crown” of the pizza, you can place it under the broiler for a minute or so. Just watch it very closely, as it can go from browned to burnt very quickly under the broiler!

Next, remove your pizza from the oven and place on a cooling rack. This will allow the crust to stay crisp. If you want to top it with fresh basil, now is the time. While the pizza is good and hot, the basil will wilt perfectly, and the aroma will be divine.