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Pizza Dough

Actually, this particular recipe is good not only as pizza dough, but it also works well as dough for stromboli or calzone. In fact I used it for calzone the other night for the Wife and her knitting friends. She went there with 2 VERY large calzones. She came home with 1 piece.

The ingredients:

  • 3 cups white flour
  • 1 1/4 cups water
  • 3 tablespoons honey
  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter(chilled)
  • 2 teaspoons kosher salt
  • 1/2 teaspoons yeast

Combine the water and honey to make 1 cup total and mix with 1 cup of flour and the yeast. Mix until basically smooth and the set aside.

Put the remaining flour in the mixing bowl. Cut the butter into the remaining flour. Like when making biscuits. Then add the salt. I like to do all of this with the mixer using the paddle attachment. Once the flour is crumbly, I switch to the dough hook attachment and add the remaining water. Let everything come together roughly, then walk away for about 20 minutes. At this point, we’re basically giving the yeast a head start so it hits the rest of the dough in full stride.

Upon returning, pour the flour/yeast mixture into the mixer and let the mixer combine everything at a low speed. Once everything has combined enough, increase the speed to medium low (I use 4 on my KitchenAid) and knead the dough until it is smooth and shiny. The dough will be very soft and sticky.

Lightly coat a container with olive oil and scrape the dough into it for the rise. Leave the dough there for at least 2 hours, or until it doubles. Depending on the yeast, it could easily triple in 2 hours.

At this point, the dough is ready to be shaped and used however you’d like for pizza, stromboli or a calzone. This amount of dough is enough for a thick crust pizza about 14″ in diameter. After shaping, I like to drizzle olive oil and some sea salt onto the crust prior to applying whatever toppings I intend to use. For pizza only, bake the crust in the oven for about 10 minutes at 400 degrees prior to applying any sauce or toppings.

If making a calzone, shape it like a pizza, apply the olive oil and sea salt, then apply topping to half the dough. (This makes a BIG calzone, cut the dough in half for a more manageable calzone size and portion if you’d prefer). When finished fold the other half over and pinch the edges closed. I actually pinched and rolled the edge a little to make sure the seam wouldn’t open during baking. Also, take a small knife and poke several holes in the top of the calzone to let steam escape so the calzone won’t “blowup.” As for baking, the calzone is done when the crust is golden brown.

Stromboli is a little trickier. Shape the dough into a rough 14×12 rectangle on parchment paper. Leave about an inch or so around the edges when applying the filling. I roll it up along the length. Take the inch of dough you left and fold it up, then use the parchment paper to help you roll the stromboli up. If this is the first time, expect to be clumsy with it. Just make sure the parchment is lightly floured as well as your hands. Pinch the seam closed at the end. I leave the seam up when baking, but that’s just my choice. Bake until golden brown at 400 degrees.

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