This is my never fail pizza dough recipe. It is based on the Bobby Flay recipe here (https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/bobby-flay/pizza-dough-recipe-1921714) in terms of ratio, with a couple tweaks, as I typically double the recipe. Also provide more directions in terms of proving the dough.
I typically make a larger batch, as this dough freezes and defrosts beautifully. Great for last minute bread sticks, rolls, ciabatta, etc as well as pizza crust. You can also use this dough for monkey bread pull apart rolls.
Ingredients:
7 cups bread flour
2 teaspoon sugar
4 teaspoon kosher salt
4 tablespoon olive oil
2.5-3 cups of lukewarm water
2 1/2 teaspoon instant rise yeast (I use red star or Fleischmann’s)
Dough Making:
In a bowl that holds at least twice the volume of your bread flour (as it will double in size when proving), add all of the dry ingredients: bread flour, sugar, kosher salt, and yeast. Lightly stir the ingredients together, just to distribute everything evenly in the flour.
Run water from the tap till it gets warm but not hot. If you want to be super precise, 110F is the proper temp, but I just run it till it’s barely warmer than lukewarm. Do not use hot water (water that is too hot for your hands to be in for more than a moment) as it will kill your yeast. Add the olive oil to the warm water (just makes it easier to combine everything). Top tip, if you have no rise after an hour of proving, it may be because you used too hot water and killed your yeast.
Using a rubber spatula, stir to combine the dry and wet ingredients together. Start with just a half of the water/oil, then add the remainder as you are mixing the dough. Once the dough is tacky to the touch and no flour remains on the bottom of the mixing bowl, it is properly hydrated. If you feel like the dough is too sticky, don’t worry! If it’s pancake mix in consistency, add a tablespoon of flour at a time until it reaches the right feel. Also remember that the dough loses moisture in the proving and cold fermentation, so starting with a wetter dough isn’t a bad thing.
Cover and put in a warm place to prove for 1-2 hours, or once it doubles in size. Then using a “stretch and fold” method, turning the bowl about 8 times with each fold, combine the dough further. No kneading needed! Once it is folded up, flip the dough over seam side down in the bowl and cover again.
Place in fridge for at least 10-12 hours (overnight is great) to cold ferment. This is where the flavor really starts to develop in the dough. I find the sweet spot is a two day cold ferment in terms of flavor, making sure to do another round of stretch/fold if I am fermenting for more than one day.
Once I have finished the cold ferment of the dough, I use a pair of scissors to cut slightly smaller than softball sized chunks (basically the size of your two hands clasped together), formed them into quick balls and wrap in plastic, storing in an airtight container in the fridge. When you want to use it, just take a ball out of the freezer and let it defrost on your counter.