I've made several different pizza dough recipes to cook on the Egg. This is the best recipe I've tried because it is flavorful, strong enough that it doesn't tear easily, and can be made ahead of time.
To enhance our regular, tomato sauce pizzas, I apply a thin coating of pesto sauce all over the surface of the rolled out dough before adding the tomato sauce. It's divine! If I don't use the pesto, I apply a bit of olive oil on the dough then add a couple of shakes of pizza sprinkles -- the one that comes in a shaker with four different toppings -- garlic & onions, Tuscan, and I forget the others. The extra flavor totally enhances the pizzas.
Makes 5 medium pizzas once cooked. Cooked pizzas average about 10 to 12 inches in diameter.
INGREDIENTS
Set 1
1 ½ tsp. Active Dry yeast (or 1 ¼ tsp. RapidRise/Instant yeast)
2 ¼ c. water about 100 deg. F.
Set 2
2 T. extra virgin olive oil
1 T. honey
2 tsp. KOSHER coarse salt
Set 3
1 lb. 8 oz. unbleached bread flour (or 5 ¼ cups)*
*If you don’t have a digital scale, use a ½-cup measuring cup to spoon the bread flour into the 1-cup measuring cup until the flour mounds over the rim. Use the straight/unsharpened edge of a long, straight knife to level the flour by sliding the straight edge of the knife across the rim of the 1-cup measuring cup. If you scoop the flour with the 1-cup measuring cup, you will use too much flour.
Set 4
Extra virgin olive oil for kneading
Tools: counter-top mixer with paddle attachment, rubber spatula, large bowl, large baking pan with 2 to 3-inch rim, pan spray, plastic wrap, several flat (no rim) cookie sheets, pizza peel
DIRECTIONS
MAKE THE DOUGH
1. Spray or apply a thin layer of olive oil all around the inside of a large bowl. Set aside.
2. Sprinkle the yeast over the warmed water. Let sit for 5 minutes then stir to dissolve.
3. Pour the yeast mixture into the bowl of the mixer then add the oil, honey, and salt.
4. Attach the bowl to the mixer and turn it to low speed.
5. Slowly add the flour. Once all the flour is incorporated very well into the dough, continue to mix for 1 minute then use the rubber spatula to scrape the dough off the sides of the bowl.
6. Turn the mixer off and rest the dough for 5 minutes. Turn the mixer back on and mix for another minute to make a smooth, somewhat sticky dough.
7. Remove the bowl from the mixer.
8. Rub some olive oil over a non-porous, smooth countertop and on your hands.
9. Empty the dough onto the oiled counter. Imagine the ball of dough as a circle with four quadrants.
10. Fold the upper right quadrant down, just past the center of the circle. Rotate the dough ¼ turn then fold the new upper right quadrant just past the center of the circle. Repeat this rotate-and-fold process until you have formed a tight ball of dough. You will feel how compact and less stretchy the dough becomes. Flip the ball over so the seams are at the bottom. Rest the dough right there on the counter for 5 minutes.
11. Add a little more oil to the counter and to your hands as needed.
12. Turn the dough so it is seam-side UP and lightly press out into a circle. Repeat the rotate-and-fold process until the dough is rolled into a tight circle again. You will feel how compact and less stretchy the dough becomes. Flip the dough over so the seam side is down. Rest for 5 minutes.
13. Repeat #10 one last time. Once you are done rolling the dough into a tight ball, place the dough, seam-side down, into the large bowl that was sprayed or oiled.
14. Oil the ball of dough with your hands or pan spray.
15. Roll a sheet of plastic wrap out and spray.
16. Loosely cover the bowl of dough and keep in your fridge overnight or for up to 3 days.
SHAPE
1. Take the dough out 2 ½ hours prior to cooking in the Big Green Egg.
2. Spray a large baking pan with a 2 to 3-inch rim with pan spray.
3. Clean and dry your countertop thoroughly. Apply a thin layer of olive on your hands and counter.
4. Roll the mass of dough onto your counter and gently press to flatten, keeping it in the shape of a circle.
5. Starting with the edge closes to you, roll the dough like you would roll a cinnamon roll. Make it a somewhat tight roll. Shape into an even log, pressing the ends toward the middle a little bit if necessary.
6. Divide the log into five nearly equal pieces. The end pieces should be slightly longer as there is generally less dough at the ends.
7. Work with one piece of dough at a time.
8. Flip one piece so the seam side is facing up. Roll into a tight ball just like you did when you made the original ball of dough….though this time you are starting with a rectangular piece of dough. Fold the top, right corner/quadrant of the dough just pass the center then give the dough a quarter turn. Repeat until you have a tight ball.
9. Turn the ball over so the seam side is down. Use both palms to cup the ball around the sides then rotate in a circular motion – the bottom of the dough should remain in contact with the counter, somewhat smoothing the seams.
10. Transfer the ball, seam side down, to the prepared baking pan. Repeat with the remaining dough.
11. Once all dough pieces have been shaped and placed in the pan, use one hand to rub a light coating of olive oil over each ball.
12. Roll a sheet or two of plastic wrap out and spray with pan spray.
13. Loosely cover the pan with the plastic.
14. Place the pan in the oven with the OVEN LIGHT TURNED ON….do not turn the actual oven on, just the light.
15. Keep the dough in the oven for about 2 hours.
PREPARE YOUR EGG
1. The Egg needs to burn at 600 to 650 degrees for this particular dough. It takes about an hour to clean out the ashes at the bottom, load plenty of lump charcoal, and get the heat upwards of 600 deg. F.
2. Stabalize the temp near 650 deg. F. before beginning to cook your pizzas.
3. You need to fill your Egg with as much charcoal as it can hold. We cook 7 to 10 pizzas, so the egg will need to burn for 1 to 1 hour and 45 minutes. The plate setter gets much hotter as you cook so the last several pizzas will cook a few minutes faster than the first few pizzas. It takes about 6 to 8 minutes per pizza at the above temps using this dough recipe.
ROLL and TOP
1. Cut parchment paper to the size of your pizza peel for a total of 5 parchments. Place one parchment on a flat cookie sheet or a pizza peel. Sprinkle cornmeal over much of the paper.
2. NOTE: the size at which you stretch your dough must be at least 2 inches shorter in diameter than your pizza stone. If the dough is too big, as it bakes and rises in the Egg, it will come very close to the edge of the stone and burn.
3. Lightly flour a nonporous rolling surface.
4. Turn out one piece of dough onto the flour then flip over.
5. Run your fingers or the sides of your palm about 1 inch in from the edge of the circle, all the way around. You are forming somewhat of a dome in the middle, a mote, then a ridge of dough.
6. Pick the dough up with your fingers. Turn the dough by grasping just the edges and letting the rest of the dough hang down, using the weight of the dough to stretch it out.
7. Once you’ve gone all the way around the dough, you have enough space to position your knuckles.
8. Let the dough hang from the knuckles of both fists and rotate the dough, allowing the dough to hang and stretch below your palms.
9. Stretch the edges of the dough as you rotate the dough.
10. Look through the dough as it stretches, noting any thin areas that you need to be cautious of.
11. Once the dough has stretched to your preferred size, lay it on the prepared sheet of parchment.
12. Brush a light coating of extra-virgin olive oil over much of the dough, especially the edges.
13. Sprinkle pizza seasoning over the oil, if desired.
14. Top with about a ½ cup of pizza sauce, a ½ cup of shredded mozzarella cheese (with Philadelphia cream cheese added), pizza toppings, and another ½ cup of shredded cheese.
15. Sprinkle a bit of cornmeal directly on the pizza stone. Slide the raw pizza onto the pizza stone WITH the parchment paper.
16. Cook for 2 MINUTES then open the Egg and carefully slide the paper out from under the pizza. Cook pizza another 6 minutes. Check the bottom of the crust. If it has not browned, cook 2 more minutes to desired color.
17. Use the pizza peel to remove the pizza and place on a pizza rack/tray. Cool 5 minutes before cutting.
Effective March 2021, PaulaQ will begin replacing Canola and vegetable/seed oils in recipes with pure lard from Reverence Farm, coconut oil, and avocado oil.
