My Go-To Pizza Crust Made With Fresh Milled Flour
This dough handles whatever you put on it. It's sturdy enough for heavy toppings, pliable enough to fold New York style, and flavorful enough that a simple cheese pizza with good mozzarella is genuinely worth eating on its own.
Servings 3 12 inch crusts
Ingredients
- 460 g hard white wheat milled on fine setting
- 354 g warm water
- 2 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp honey
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tsp instant yeast
Instructions
Make the Dough
- Mill hard white wheatberries as fine as your mill allows. You need 460g of flour.
- Warm water to about 90°F —warm to the touch but not hot.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the water, honey, olive oil, salt, and flour. Mix until just incorporated.
- Cover the bowl and let it rest for 15 minutes. This autolyse step lets the fresh milled flour fully absorb the water before kneading begins.
- Add the instant yeast and mix to incorporate.
- Knead on medium-low speed until the dough passes the windowpane test. Don't rush it and don't add extra flour. The dough will be sticky, and that's correct.
- Lightly oil a large bowl and place the dough inside. Cover with plastic wrap or a damp towel.
- Let rise at room temperature for 1 hour or until doubled.
Windowpane test: stretch a small piece of dough thin enough to see light through it without it tearing. When it does that, you're done.
Shape and Bake
- Preheat oven to 450°F.
- Turn dough out and divide into 3 equal pieces for 12-inch pizzas or 2 pieces for 15-inch.
- Lightly oil a smooth surface. Flatten each dough portion to your desired size and shape.
- Optional: dock the dough by poking it all over with a fork before adding sauce. This gives a flatter, crispier old-school crust and keeps toppings from sliding.
- Transfer shaped dough to parchment paper lightly dusted with cornmeal or rice flour, or sprayed with baking spray.
- Add sauce and toppings. Try it with the homemade marinara from this weekend's post.
- Using a pizza peel or baking sheet, slide the pizza (with parchment) directly onto the oven rack.
- Bake 8 minutes, then slide out the parchment paper and return the pizza directly to the rack.
- Bake another 6 to 8 minutes until the cheese is browned and bubbly and the bottom is deeply golden.
- Remove with the peel or pan. Rest 3 to 5 minutes before cutting.
Freezing the Dough
- After dividing the dough, spray freezer-safe zip-lock bags with oil and place one dough portion per bag. Press out air, seal, and freeze for up to 3 months. To use, thaw in the refrigerator overnight or at room temperature for 2 to 3 hours, then shape and bake as above.