A not-close-to-perfect pizza recipe

I don't consider this a perfect pizza recipe. There isn't one perfect pizza, and there isn't one perfect pizza recipe.

It's not simply a matter of differing tastes. Decent pizza, sure, you could teach a robot to make it. But if great pizza is an art form, it requires an artist who senses every nuance, every potential pitfall.

“People just really have to find their own thing and burn their fingers with all the elements and the variables that make that day different from the next,” says Chris Bianco of Pizzeria Bianco in Phoenix, Ariz. “There's definitely a science to it but it's almost like a farmboy science. I put it in, I don't know what the hell it does, but it works.”

So let's consider this more a set of guidelines, with help from people who know a lot more about pizza than me. It's also a progress report of my personal pizza quest.

Even if it takes you a while to find your pizza groove, keep in mind the words of pizza expert Peter Reinhart: “Pizza dough is a very inexpensive hobby to have.”

It's just the toppings that cost you.

The dough

Makes three pizzas, approximately 12 in. in diameter. Note: This dough requires at least two hours advance preparation.

As with all baking, the real trick with pizza is to break out a scale and determine the proper hydration rate (water to flour, by weight) for dough. Most pizza is made with a hydration rate around 65 percent (6.5 lbs. water to 10 lbs. flour) though Brian Spangler of Apizza Scholls goes up to 74 percent. I use about 70 percent here. 

Flour: Some bakers demand Italian “00” flour, finely milled with a lower extraction rate (less wheat germ) and a low protein content. But Bianco, who brings in flour from San Francisco, believes freshness and proper storage are most crucial. Spangler prefers flours used in artisanal baking: unbleached and unbromated (lacking maturing agents that ease kneading), with a lower protein content (about 11.5 percent) than many all-purpose flours. Leonardi uses bleached Mondako flour, from Pendleton, Ore., with 12 percent protein.

My best results came from King Arthur unbleached all-purpose flour, with a protein content of 11.7 percent.

Less protein can make dough more delicate, so don't overknead it. While some dough recipes allow you to use an electric mixer, and some pizzaioli tolerate them, I found hand-mixed dough more pliable.

Yeast: Note that I call for less than a standard packet. Many home pizza recipes use too much yeast, perhaps because more yeast helps dough proof (rise) more quickly. But Bianco notes some pizzerias in Naples take four days to proof dough. A long rise helps develop acids and flavor in the dough, says Spangler, who proofs for 20 hours. Reinhart suggests proofing dough overnight in the refrigerator.

Ingredients
12 oz. unbleached, unbromated flour* (about 2 1/2 cups, by volume), plus at least 1 cup more
4.2 oz. lukewarm water* (almost exactly 1/2 cup, by volume)
4.2 oz. cold water* (almost exactly 1/2 cup, by volume)
1 tsp. active dry yeast
1/4 tsp. sugar or 3-4 drops molasses
1 tsp. kosher salt
At least 3 tsp. olive oil

*Please note: The flour and water amounts are listed by weight.

1) Make sure the lukewarm water is at the right temperature (ideally 110 degrees F). Measure it into a cup. Stir in the sugar or molasses, as you prefer.

2) Sprinkle yeast over the top of the lukewarm water and stir thoroughly.  Within 5-10 minutes, a foamy layer should form on top of the water as the yeast is activated.

3) Meantime, get out two mixing bowls. Pour the flour into one bowl, mix in the salt, then divide the mixture evenly between the two bowls.

4) Pour the water-yeast mixture into one of the bowls as you stir with a wooden spoon. Pour in about one teaspoon of olive oil (more if you prefer) and continue to stir. Once a dough begins to form, gradually add the flour from the other bowl and the cold water, as you continue to stir. The dough should be sticky and slightly rough. You may need to scrape flour off the side of the bowl until it all forms one lumpy, uniform mass.

5) Heavily flour a flat surface with the remaining flour. Pour the dough from the bowl onto the surface and knead for about 2 minutes with the palm of your hand, turning and folding it repeatedly, adding more flour to the surface if necessary. If the dough sticks, peel it carefully or use a pastry scraper to loosen it.

6) As soon as the dough is pliant and smooth, form it into a round, slightly flat ball — or, if you're following Reinhart's approach, form it into a long cylinder and cut it into three equal pieces. Then form those into balls.

7) Take about 1 tsp. of olive oil and coat a bowl. (Three small bowls, if you've cut the dough already.) Place the dough into the bowl(s) and cover with plastic wrap. Alternately, you can borrow an ingenious method from food writer Jeffrey Steingarten and place one piece of dough in a measuring cup, with the rest in a bowl. Cover both.

8) Place the dough in a stable, room-temperature spot in your kitchen. It will need to rise until it at least doubles in volume, at least 90 minutes. (If you're following Reinhart, place the bowls in the refrigerator overnight.) Steingarten's measuring-cup method will help you gauge when it has doubled. If you aren't planning to make your pizzas immediately after the dough proofs, you may want to refrigerate it.