Italian Style Pizza

Homemade Pizza

2/7/2019

My mouth is watering. This is mine and Jeremy's favorite homemade pizza. Jeremy and I made Cast Iron pizza on our honeymoon and loved it. So we’ve experimented over and over and we’ve finally reached this pizza. It's authentic Italian style. It's not truly authentic of course, I don't have a wood burning pizza oven or Italian water in my dough, but it's a rather close alternative.The crust isn't thin or thick but perfectly crispy and chewy. YUM Let's make pizza together...

Let's begin with 4 cups of flour, preferably tipo 00, but all-purpose will do just fine.
1 teaspoon salt, 1 2/3 cups warm water, and 1/2 teaspoon dry active yeast.

Mix your salt with your flour

And your water with your yeast

Now pour them together

And stir.

It wont stir together perfectly, so let the shaggy dough rest for 10-15 minutes. Then knead into a smooth ball.

Pour some olive oil on top and make sure you roll your dough around in it so that it's fully covered. This may be the most imperative step.

Cover with a wet cloth and let rise for an hour until it doubles in size.

wooooooooow. Okay, Put your fist in it to let the air out.

Break it in half.

Take a fourth of the dough and pull the dough so that the top is smooth.

Seal it together on the bottom.

Continue with the rest and place them seam side down.

Cover again and let rest for at least another hour, but preferably overnight in the refrigerator. A slower colder rise is better and gives the crust a great texture.

When you're ready for pizza heat your oven AND cast iron to 500. To get the pizza ready prep a work station with cornmeal and get all your topping close by.

Use your knuckles to spread the dough, it will puff up in the oven a but so don't be afraid to get it really thin, so thin that it's about to rip. But don't let it. (if it does just pinch it back together)