Handmade Pan Pizza Dough
Ingredients
- 2 cups 240g all-purpose flour
- 3/4 tsp. salt
- 1/2 tsp. instant yeast or active dry yeast
- 3/4 cup 170g lukewarm water
- 1 Tbsp. 13g olive oil
Instructions
- Weigh your flour or measure it by gently spooning it into a measuring cup, then sweeping off any excess.
- Place the flour, salt, yeast, water, and olive oil in a medium-sized bowl.
- Stir everything together to make a shaggy mass of dough with the flour fully incorporated. This should take about 1 minute by hand - the dough will be sticky at this stage. Scrape down the sides of the bowl to gather the dough into a rough ball and cover with plastic wrap.
- After 5 minutes, uncover the bowl and using wet hands, reach down between the side of the bowl and stretch the bottom of the dough up and over its top. Repeat three more times, turning the bowl 90° each time. This process of four stretches is called a "fold" and will be done in place of kneeding.
- Re-cover the bowl, and after 5 minutes do another fold. Wait 5 minutes and repeat; then another 5 minutes, and do a fourth and final fold. Cover the bowl and let the dough rest, undisturbed, for 40 minutes. If using same day, place dough in prepared cast iron dish (see cheesy pan pizza recipe for more details) and let rise an additional 3 hours before baking. If preparing the dough in advance, then refrigerate it for ideally 12 hours. It'll rise slowly as it chills, developing flavor; this long rise will also add flexibility to your schedule.
Notes
This pizza dough is quick to throw together and can be made ahead of time making it the perfect weeknight meal!