Ingredients
Scale
- 1 teaspoon (½ packet) active dry yeast
- 1 cup warm water
- 2½ cups flour
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon olive oil + more for greasing
- Cornmeal, for dusting
- Pizza toppings of your choice
- Pizza sauce
- Mozzarella cheese, shredded
Instructions
- In a large bowl, whisk together the yeast and warm water until the yeast is dissolved and foamy, about 1 minute. Let it sit as is another 5 minutes to continue foaming and growing, until it’s ready to do its work.
- Ditch the whisk and grab a sturdy spatula. Stir in the flour, salt, and oil, and mix to combine everything, about 1 minute, until you have a dough ball that’s neither sticky nor stiff.
- Ditch the spatula now and, with your hands, knead the dough ball in teh bowl, pushing the dough away from you with the heel of your hand and folding it over itself with your fingers, then pulling it back. Do this for 7 minutes, total, to fully develop the chewy, stretchy tunnels of gluten.
- Grease a fresh large bowl with a thin coast of oil, and transfer the dough ball to it. Toss the dough in the fat, and leave it seam side down. Cover the bowl with a dry towel, and place it in a draft-free spot (I like the microwave or a turned-off oven) to rise for an hour, until it’s doubled in size.
- Knock the dough out onto a clean, dry countertop, and divide it into size equal pieces. Round each piece into a smaller ball. Place the balls 2 inches apart, cover them with the same towel, and let them rest and rise another hour, until each has doubled in size.
- In the meantime, position an oven rack close to your oven’s heating element. Heat the oven to its highest temperature, 500° or 550°F. Sprinkle two half sheet pans liberally with cornmeal.
- Like a pizzaiolo/a, punch each dough ball down, stretch it, and throw it into a 6-inch round–or, alternatively, using a rolling pin, flatten and roll each dough ball out to the same size, shooting for a thinner center (¼ to ½ inch) and slightly thicker edges (½ to ¾ inch) to represent the crust.
- Make a pizza bar: Grab anything and everything that could make awesome pizza toppings, and lay them out on the counter for folks to don their individual pizzas as they like.
- When the oven is as hot as can be, throw the pizza (either raw on cornmeal-lined pans or par-cooked) into the oven. Bake until the cheese begins to bubble and the crust is golden brown, 7 to 8 minutes from raw, 2-3 minutes for par-cooked. Have a cutting board and sharp knife or pizza roller ready so that, as the pizzas come out of the oven, you can slice and serve them hot. I don’t think you need me to tell you how to store leftover pizza–everyone does their own thing. We wrap ours in plastic in the fridge overnight, because Franke really likes pizza for breakfast the next day. I don’t encourage you to keep it for more than 2 days. Eat it cold, or reheat it in the oven to attempt to bring a little texture back, though nothing is like the fresh-out-of-the-oven thing.