New Sheriff of Pizza Town
sausage and cheese no knead pizza
EVERYONE loves pizza. I love pizza. And as you know, recently I have learned to bake bread. If you have been here before you know the bread baking technique that I am crazy about right now is the no- knead technique. It’s too easy , it feels like “cheating”. This simple recipe requires an overnight fermentation.You can read all about it here and here.
Well, another miracle has happened pardners! Jim Lehey has a pizza dough recipe, a no-knead pizza dough! And I’m here to tell you it’s just as wonderful as the no knead bread, maybe even better. Why is it better you may ask? Because it makes you a superhero. Of course, if you’ve got company over and you’re making pizza with homemade dough you’re already a superstar! But when you and your guests bite in to this pizza dough your friends will be your friends for ever! It is simply, AMAZING!
Now don’t worry, it’s just as easy to make as Jim’s bread. Just mix the dough the day ahead let it sit on the counter overnight, then get ready to take a trip to awesome pizza town! (Keep in mind this dough can’t be frozen and used later. But it will keep in the refrigerator for a few days.) The recipe makes enough for 6 medium sized pizzas, but I made even smaller pizzas so i could experiment with toppings and techniques.
Here are a few pointers:
- Definitely use a pizza stone if you have one. I have found that this transforms any pizza into something edible. Yes, even frozen pizza.
- Keep your dough on top of a generous amount of polenta cornmeal while you’re working with it.
- Use an upside down cookie sheet as my pizza peel/ working surface, with the addition of polenta it slides right off onto the stone.
- Gently pull your dough into shape instead of using a rolling pin. The fermentation creates these wonderful gas bubbles that a rolling pin will squish.
- Don’t overuse your toppings. Definitely use less than you think you need because once that pizza starts cooking- you don’t want the crust to get overdone while you’re waiting on your toppings to cook and cheese to melt.
I like to use Heidi Swanson’s recipe for five-minute tomato sauce, I just cook it longer than 5 min. so that it gets thicker. If you have a favorite pizza sauce definitely use that one. I made several different kinds of pizza, and they all came out delicious. What I love about this crust is the way that it bubbles, just like pizza dough is supposed to! You can see here in this photograph how one of the bubbles grew really really tall and sort of looks like a volcano to me! A pizza volcano! Move over chocolate fountain! There’s a new sheriff in town!
Pizza Volcano
darla cooks 
WOW this look delish!! Great tips for working with the dough also.
I cheat and use my bread maker to make my pizza dough. I have been using Broke Ass gourmet’s recipe now for a year. I have it memorized lol. There is always a wad of dough in my fridge.
haha awesome pizza volcano… it’d be pretty clever to put tomato sauce over it 🙂
😉 thar she blows!!!!
Looks good and I love pizza. Make my dough in the mixer with the kneading hook. Unfortunately not everyone loves pizza. My daughter hates it and I don’t know how I wound up with a child who dislikes pizza and lasagna. I could live off of pizza.
Darla we love pizza! We usually have to sneak it off of the counter because the humans don’t give it to us. When we do it is heaven. Your pizzas look like heaven x 2. Yum and *drool*
Bella and DiDi
LOL! counter surfing!!! you girls are perfectly tall enough to get too the good stuff!
We are and we do! Keep sharing your wonderful kitchen moments!
Bella and DiDi
Semolina flour works very well. I use it in place of cornmeal, it’s finer and dusts off easily.
I love this recipe. I have a few tips that I use when making my pizzas. First I use Semolina Flour instead of cornmeal as it has a finer texture and dusts off easily after baking. Edible ball bearings, just like cornmeal! Then I place the pizza on a cooling rack once out of the oven. I noticed that the crust that I worked so hard on got soggy due to condensation on the cold plate. Warm plates are good, but not as effective as the cooling rack. Even after cutting, I still keep the pieces on the cooling rack, and it keeps the crustier crispy from first slice to last. I also use whole milk mozzarella instead of the Americanized “part-skim” mozzarella. Deeper flavor and it allows me to “over-develop” the cheese easier. (Brown it, or caramelize it). And lastly, I use a really heavy pizza stone, the heavier the better. And sometimes place it on the top rack in the oven and pre-heat the oven at 500 degrees for 30 minutes or so. Then when the pizza is in the oven the top of the oven is also “super-heated” allowing the radiant heat to bake the pizza from the top as well. Works just like a professional pizza oven!
these are all GREAT suggestions! thanks for posting. soggy pizza is awful!
oh my gd, the photos of the food always look so mouth wateringly delicious, gah! lol. I’m always having the pizza debate with my sister on soft dough verses crispy. we disagree every single time. I love, love crispy dough. i love crispy everything including fries. and every time we order out and we decide to split pizza and fries, it’s always an issue! lol…but anywho..i suppose we can find a balance in having it doughy on the inside, crispy on the out? but, eh. i’m stickin with thin crispy, hehe. oh, and yeah too many toppings can totally ruin pizza and everything falls apart….but omg I tried this bbq chicken battered pizza and I unexpectedly love it and now I think it may just be one of my favorite summer spins on a slice ‘o pizza! Thank you for sharing yummiest food! 🙂
oh, side not -I love the sketch of your headline of ‘darla cooks’ it’s awesome!