Recipe: PERFECTLY DELICIOUS AND PERFECTLY ROUND HONEY WHOLE WHEAT PIZZA (Buffalo style)
The basic pizza dough recipe contains a blend of flour, oil, salt and small amount of yeast. Some contain a small amount of sugar to help the yeast. Sauce and cheese are layered on top. After trying many pizza dough recipes (from very famous chefs no less) I was disappointed. Why? My taste buds have been spoiled by our regional pizza. There is something special about pizza in Western New York. My non-expert conclusion is the secret lies in the quality of the dough. What you put on top really doesn’t matter if the dough sucks.
I think the perfect combination of sweetness and yeasty yeastiness makes for a great pizza. In this recipe I kick up the oil, sugar and yeast. The sugar I use is in the form of two full tablespoons of honey for its unrefined natural flavor. The oil I use is a very light, very delicate, EVOO along with active dry yeast. I have mentioned before that the quality of the ingredients will make all the difference. The fewer ingredients you are using make quality even more important since you will taste every one of them.
INGREDIENTS:
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 ½ cups white whole wheat flour (any combination of flours will do but I always add a small percentage of whole grain when I can)
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 ½ tsp active dry yeast or instant yeast
- 1 tbsp ground flax meal (optional but so good for you and taste great too)
- 2 tbsp honey
- ¼ cup light extra virgin olive oil
- 1 cup distilled, bottled or filtered water heated to 120 degrees (The chlorine in tap water is bad for yeast. The flavor of some tap water is not great either)
TECHNIQUE:
When working with yeast you can simply add the yeast to the mix and everything should be fine or you can proof the yeast. Some of you baker geeks out there will say, ‘you are using active dry so you have to proof.’ Well, you don’t. Proofing gives the yeast a head start and guarantees that your yeast is still alive. I use active dry because it comes in a glass jar that I can keep in my freezer and I can spoon out what I need when I need it. The packets are nice but I like the jar. Here is how you proof for my pizza dough. Put 2 and ½ tsp of yeast in a small bowl and, if frozen, allow it to come up to room temperature. Microwave 1 cup of water to just under 120 degrees. Use a meat thermometer to check the temperature of the water. If it hits 130 it’s too hot and you will kill your yeast! Add two tablespoons of honey to the water and mix until honey is completely diluted. Add a few tablespoons of water/honey mixture to yeast. Mix and wait a few minutes. If your yeast is still alive it will foam up and smell fantastic. I let it double in volume but you can let it go as long as you want. Once the bowl is overflowing onto your counter, though, you should probably make a decision.
While your yeast is proofing thoroughly combine the dry ingredients. Now combine all of your wet ingredients, including the yeast when ready, with the dry. I won’t get elementary by explaining how to knead dough but if you have never done it look it up on youtube. A bread baker on the dough setting works great. It can do all the work for you and does not cost a lot. King Arthur Flour’s website is a great place to look up technique that you can trust. I will say one thing though and that is you should not prejudge your mixture based on look and feel and start adding more flour or water during your knead. Sometimes it takes about 10 minutes or so but it should come together unless you have measured wrong or working in high humidity. When working with whole grains they can take a little longer to absorb moisture too. If using a sweet KitchenAid Artisan mixer you should be done in around 5 minutes. I start with the paddle for around 20 seconds then switch to the dough hook and knead for 5 minutes. Lightly oil a bowl and place you dough ball in it. Spin the ball around to cover the ball in oil (prevents drying out) and then cover the bowl. Let it rise for 45 minutes. Since my house is cold this time of year I float the dough bowl in a larger bowl that has a little warm, not boiling, water in it. This gives the dough a warm water jacket and encourages the yeast to eat. The dough should almost double in size. Turn out your dough onto a lightly floured surface, gently deflate to eliminate large bubbles, and divide in half. This recipe makes two 10-14 inch pizza pies. If you only need one you can freeze the rest of the dough or refrigerate if you are using it within a couple of days.
A perfect homemade pizza, to me, is perfectly round with a thick rim crust. The easy way to make a round pizza is to roll each half into as perfect of a ball as you can make. Take your rolling pin and push directly down on the center of the ball. Lift your pin, rotate 90 degrees and push down again. Keep lifting and rotating and pushing down on the center of your ball until it is as flat and round as it can get and looks like a large cookie. Now you can begin rolling. Roll from the center outward rotating continuously. The dough will be elastic and will work against you. Let the dough rest for a few minutes and work on the other ball. . You will have to do this rotation of rolling and resting in order to get each ball rolled to 10 to 12 inches. When I get close to finishing I sprinkle corn meal on my work surface to make it easier to handle and move. I then pinch the edge to create a thicker rim crust and perforate the center with a fork to prevent it from rising too much in the oven. Ideally this will result in a thick outer rim crust and the center will stay evenly flatter. The end result will look like a real pizza and not some homemade frankenpizza.
Toppings are entirely up to you. It is easy to get carried away with spices so I keep it simple. Believe it or not I just use a light smearing of jarred pasta sauce since I do not like too much sauce. Then I layer on a mixture of mozzarella and smoked provolone. Finally I top it with any combination of pepperoni, roma tomatoes, mushrooms etc. Toppings are a personal thing. Another favorite is Frank’s hot sauce, cheddar cheese and bits of cooked chicken.
Just before you start rolling your dough you will want to start preheating your oven to 500 degrees. If you are using a pizza stone then it should be in your oven preheating about 1/3 up from the bottom. No pizza stone? You can buy a pizza stone for 13 bucks. If you have a heavy ½ sheet pan you can turn it over and let it preheat in your oven. If you are using a stone you should let it preheat for around 30 minutes so time this with your prep. You don’t want your pies sitting with the toppings for too long so do not top until just before the oven. A couple notes about pizza stones: keep it in the oven when preheating; keep it in the oven to cool down; don’t ever clean with soap, scrape it clean if something burns on it. Also, the pizza stone is the best way to reheat day old pizza and breads.
Cornmeal or semolina is needed for the transfer from work surface to stone. I do not have a pizza peel so I transfer the pie to a rimless cookie sheet sprinkled (coated) with cornmeal so I can easily slip the pie off the sheet onto the scorching hot stone.
In about 8 to 10 minutes the cheese will start to bubble and some bubbles will turn brown. It is done. Pull it out and transfer to a cutting board to cool for a few minutes before cutting.
BAKER’S NOTE:
Even though pizza dough is a simple recipe it requires some baker’s skill to get the desired result. It is a great way to start developing baking skills and appreciating the science of it all. Sequencing, ingredients, measurement and consistency are critical in baking every single time. I remember watching Julia Child once and she stated that great bakers often turn out to be great cooks. I am no great cook and I never understood it at the time but I can tell you that I could not even learn to cook until I learned to bake.
