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Don Stefano’s Pizza Dough Recipe

by | Feb 18, 2014

Dad's Homemade Pizza Oven - Photo by Jason Price, Seattle

Don Stefano’s Pizza Dough Recipe

Last summer my mother was surprised to find out that my dad wanted to build a pizza oven in the back yard of their home in California.  While it was a cool idea it was also a pretty hearty challenge.  Over several weeks my dad learned to mix and pour cement, lay bricks, spread mortar and construct what has become a pretty damned cool pizza oven. I was able to visit this past January and see the oven itself in all it’s glory.  It’s really a sight to behold and I love the head of Bacchus adorning the front as shown in the photo above.

In October I began to receive photos of all the delightful things that were being cooked in said oven – which included a lot more than pizza.  For example, the porchetta pictured below was baked in the oven for about 10-15 minutes to crisp the skin on the outside before moving it into the oven inside to back to perfection.  It was made from a Red Wattle pig raised by my dad’s friend Shane who is a part-time pig farmer down the road.  We made a similar dish in January for Super Bowl and it was awesome!  I’ll post the porchetta recipe here at some point in the near future.

Porchetta fresh from the oven

 

Making this pizza dough recipe is quite simple.  It requires basic ingredients, time and patience and an extremely hot oven.  Using the right pizza dough recipe and ingredients makes all the difference when creating your homemade version.  Once you master this, you will never buy that gloppy pre-made pizza dough at the grocery store again!

 

Ingredients

  • 557 g. of ’00’ Caputo Pizza flour the most important ingredient can be found online at The Hungry Dog’s store.
  • 1 package (2 1/4 tsp) of Instant Yeast – Be sure it’s NOT active dry yeast – the instant doesn’t have to proof or be activated
  • 15 g kosher salt
  • 1 1/3 cups of ice water

 

Instructions

  1. Put ice water into the bowl of your KitchenAid or standing mixer.
  2. Dry mix flour, salt, and yeast together with a whisk.
  3. Add to water in bowl then knead using dough hook for 10-11 min.
  4. Divide dough into 4 pieces (each will weigh about 8 oz.) – this will make 4 X 10″ pizzas.
  5. Form the dough into balls.
  6. Place into a floured, plastic container with a lid. Leave space in between as these will grow in diameter and rise.
  7. Put in refrigerator for 3 days so it can cold ferment.

This pizza dough recipe can be used for traditional pizzas or Tarte Flambee (or Flammenkuche in German).  If you are making pizza you’ll want Italian Fontina cheese in addition to mozzarella.  If you are making Tarte Flambee or Flammenkuche you’ll want to use quark and fromage blanc.  Also, the best and easiest sauce to use is Pomi which is widely available and comes in small boxes.

Try it out and let me know how it goes – bon appetit!

If you enjoyed this recipe then read more about food, farming and eating locally in Seattle by Jason Price at TheHungryDogBlog.com!