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Pizza Crust (Basic)
Home-made pizza is surprisingly simple and quick to make--if you plan ahead. Prepare the
dough ball the night before or, better yet, two days before, and the most time-consuming part of the
process is preheating the oven.
Preparing the dough well in advance affects more than your schedule. As Oliver Strand wrote (New
York Times, May 18, 2010): "The prolonged fermentation of an overnight rise not only develops the dough’s
structure, it also enables starches to transform into flavorful sugars. The dough becomes complex and nuanced.
It’s a crust you want to eat.
"It’s also a crust you want to admire. While a three-hour rise yields a crust that has the pasty pallor of raw
flour, the caramelized sugars from an overnight rise give the cornicione, or edge, a color that goes from golden
brown to the deep bronze of a ’70s tan."
| 1/2 c. warm water |
1 t. dry yeast |
| 1 1/2 c. unbleached white (all-purpose or bread) flour |
1 1/2 t. sea salt |
| 2 1/2 T. olive oil |
1 T. honey |
| 2 T. corn meal |
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- Place the warm water in a small bowl, and sprinkle the yeast over it. After stirring in the
yeast, allow it to stand for approximately 5 minutes. (If the yeast is active, the mixture
will swell and bubbles will appear here and there on the surface. If the yeast is not
active, discard the mixture and get some more yeast.)
- Mix the flour and salt in a large bowl. Pour the yeast mixture into the bowl with the
flour. Add the honey and 1 1/2 T. of the oil. Mix with a sturdy spoon. Using one hand,
knead the dough in the bowl until smooth and elastic, about 6 minutes.
- Cover the bowl with clear plastic wrap for 30 minutes. Move the bowl to the
refrigerator and chill for 1 to 2 days. (It will rise very little.)
- Place the dough ball on a lightly floured work surface. Cover it with the plastic
wrap and allow it to stand for an hour.
- Preheat the oven to 500o for at least 30 minutes. Sprinkle the corn meal on
the baking sheet you will be using.
- Roll out the dough on the work surface to a 12-inch round. Brush it with the
remaining tablespoon of olive oil. The crust is ready to be topped and baked. At
500o, the cooking time should be 10-15 minutes.
12-inch crust
Source: Rayme Rossello and Pam Proto, Bon Appetit (September 2002)
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