Mom's Latest Favorite Pizza!

Now or Later Pizza Dough (recipe from KAF)

•  1 3/4 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
• 1 1/4 cups semolina*
• 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon Pizza Dough Flavor (optional, but delicious)
• 1 teaspoon instant yeast
• 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 cup + 2 tablespoons to 1 1/4 cups lukewarm water
• *Use 3 cups all-purpose flour OR 3 cups Perfect Pizza Blend in place of the all-purpose/semolina mixture, if desired

I start with a cup of fed sourdough starter in place of 1 cup of flour, then add the other ingredients and mix in my stand mixer with the dough hook but it can easily be done by hand. I usually make the  dough in the morning, put the dough ball in a big plastic bag sprayed with nonstick spray, and close the bag loosely at the top with a twist tie. Give it plenty of room to expand as it rises!  I leave the bag of dough out at room temp for 45 mins or an hour then stick it in the fridge till 1-2 hours before I want to use it. 

Dough: Mix all ingredients together well and knead for 7 minutes; the dough should be smooth and quite soft.  If kneading by hand, mix the ingredients, then let the dough rest, covered, for about 30 minutes; this will give the flour a chance to absorb the water, which will make kneading easier.

Divide the dough in half. Note: for thick, Sicilian-style pizza, leave the dough in one piece, and press it into a rimmed half-sheet pan (18" x 13"). I make the Sicilian style and double the recipe if I want to make 2 big pizzas.

Working with one piece of dough at a time, plop it in the middle of a greased pizza pan or cookie sheet, sprinkled with a bit of semolina if you like, I do :) Put a little EVOO on your hands and go to work spreading (pushing) the dough out from the center to the side of the pan. If it the dough creeps back let it rest for 5 or 10 minutes and try it again till you can get the dough spread out to the crust. 

Brush the dough with a little EVOO and let it rest while you heat your oven to 450°F. For thickest crust, let your pizza rest/rise for 30-60 minutes before baking.

Baking: I bake the 'naked' crust for about 6 minutes then take it out and top it with EVOO and your favorite toppings. For this pizza I used a spicy red sauce, (pesto is good too), pepperoni, onion, peppers, mushrooms, arugala, kalamata olives, parm or asiago and then torn pieces of fresh mozzarella. I sprinkled  a bit of the KAF pizza seasoning on too before baking.  Lately I've been chopping all the veggies in the food processor so there are just little bits of them all over the pizza, really tasty.  I didn't do that with this one though :) This is what it looked like topped before finishing the bake:

Bake for 6 minutes for a thinner crust or for up to 8 minutes for a thicker crust or until the cheese is golden and bubbling.  Remove from the oven and let rest for a few minutes before slicing.