Pizza Crust Recipe

When I was growing up, it was a tradition for my dad to make pizza every Friday night from September-April (it was too hot to use the oven during the other months). In college, I decided I wanted to carry on the tradition. I asked him for his recipe, expecting to be handed some sort of old, handwritten, intergenerational piece of McMahon family lore.

Instead he emailed me this link. It is a very workmanlike dough which is hard to screw up and generally delivers good pizza performance. Nothing fancy and gets the job done well.

Ingredients

I will double (or sometimes triple this recipe depending on how big the pizza party is)

• 2.25tsp active yeast (one packet)
• 0.5tsp brown sugar
• 1.5c warm water (110 degree F, this is important or you will kill the yeast)
• 1tsp salt
• 2tbs olive oil
• 3.5c all purpose flow (+/-, I go by feel)

Recipe

I use a stand mixer for this process.

1. Combine yeast, brown sugar, and water in bowl. Let sit for 10 min. After 10 min, there should be some frothy pond scum on the top of the mixture from the yeast farts. If this is not there your water was not the right temperature and you either killed the yeast or didn’t get them hot and bothered enough. Start over.
2. Stir salt and oil into mixture. Put in about 3c flour and begin to mix.
3. Keep mixing and adding flour until the dough becomes “tacky”. I define tacky as being able to “tap” the dough with your finger and having none stick to you. It should be almost sticky, but not quite enough to separate.
4. Oil a separate bowl and place the dough ball inside the bowl. Cover with plastic wrap.
5. Let rise for about an hour (more is fine, less is okay but not optimal). The dough should double in size if you didn’t kill the yeast in step 1. About halfway through this rising start preheating your oven.

At this point you can cover with your favorite toppings. I use a ceramic pizza stone and turn my oven up as high as it can go (~550 degree F). Depending on pie thickness I average about 8 minutes to bake. I check at 7 minutes.

Pizza Party Tips

Pizza parties are my preferred hosting modality. People generally excuse poor behavior (see #1 below) if you serve them food.

1. Lots of beer (and/or La Croix)
2. If you are entertaining a large party, consider getting two pizza stones. It requires quick pizza preparation cycles but you can serve much quicker.
3. Turn your oven up as high as it will go. Make sure to preheat oven with the pizza stone in it to avoid cracking potential.
4. Buy a wooden pizza paddle. Put cornmeal beneath the dough after it has been tossed/rolled out but before ingredients are added. These will act like little ball bearings to “slide” the pizza onto the stone.
5. Do all your food prep during the dough rising refractory period. Presentation is key here - I aim to have an aesthetically arranged spread of ingredients. Audiences love it and it makes for a more efficient pizza preparation in the “heat” of the moment (reference #3).