Although I've made a lot of pizza, I don't think I've ever made a dough with milk. So I will give this a try. I'm always looking for a good pizza crust.

Thanks!

I hope you enjoy it Teresa - I also had never made a dough with milk. It's almost got a sourdough flavor, and it's for sure the easiest dough I've ever made, along with the tastiest :-)

Becky

What makes it "artisinal"?
That sounds very like a recipe I make for what I call sandwich bread. It's fairly soft has a tender crumb and beacause of the milk and the sugar in the milk it toasts well.
Don't you find that at 450 or so for baking a pizza that the bottom gets too brown?

Linda, I have no idea what makes it "artisinal" - I copied the recipe word for word out of the book, including the title they had given it.

I cook my pizzas for about 8 minutes on a preheated stone that's been heating for an hour at 500F and no, the bottom doesn't get too brown - it's chewy and has a nice sourdough-ish flavor.

Becky

Becky, I just took my pizza out of the oven using your dough recipe above - OH YUMMMMM! This is really good! The flavor is very good, but I really like the texture - not hard, not soft, a crunch when you bite but softer inside. I really like this pizza crust.

I mixed up half the recipe last night, so it did not rest a full 24 hours - more like 20. But I did go in a few hours ago and turn it over. Used a pastry cloth sprinkled with flour to roll out a nice thin pizza crust - no tears in the dough. Plopped it onto my peel covered with cornmeal then topped it and baked at 475 F for 8 1/2 minutes. I put my stone up in the middle of the oven this time and preheated the oven for over 15 minutes. The pizza got nice and brown and the crust too; seems to bake more evenly with the stone on the middle rack.

Best pizza I have made in a while! Did I say I love this recipe??? Might try it next time using dried milk in the dough to see if that works; it's easier and I always have dried on hand.

Thank you, Becky! I may have found "THE" pizza crust recipe!
Teresa

Teresa - glad you liked it! I made pizza last weekend when we had houseguests using that dough recipe, and I still think it's the best crust I've ever made. DH and I are having pizza tomorrow night using some ingredients I froze after the last session, and I intend to make a quadruple batch so I can freeze a couple of dough balls.

It really is better if you can make it 24 hours in advance, but I've also made it in the morning with acceptable results.

Thanks for reporting back - glad to know it wasn't just a fluke for me LOL.

Becky

okay, gotta try this....
I've been using a version I scaled down of Lou's dough every Friday...but this sounds excellant too...
How thin does the crust have to me to get two 12-14" pizzas?
Hubby likes thick crust pizza.

And BTW Becky..your Kentucky Chocolate Pecan Pie is the BOMB around here!!!!!!

Teri - I roll the crust pretty thin, maybe 1/4" thick or so since we like it thin. It does puff up a little while it's baking, but not much. While I've never measured the size, I think that the crusts rolled that thin are about 14". If you like it a lot thicker, then you might want to increase the ingredients by 50% to get two thicker crusts of comparable size. Hope that makes sense...

Glad your family like the pie - mine does too. We still have about 1 1/2 pieces left from Christmas, but only because my 14yo son is off visiting his older sisters LOL.

Becky

Some folks may think "pizza dough is...pizza dough" but I can't begin to tell you how many different recipes I have tried over the years and usually felt they were lacking somehow. Some like a really chewy dough, others like the cracker style. I think I wanted something close to Papa John's hand tossed but a little thinner, really good flavor, and especially - homemade! Oh, and very easy to make and handle too! Now is that too much to ask for? LOL!

Homemade pizza hot off your own pizza stone in your very hot oven is just extra special and not all that difficult to accomplish. It just takes a little practice. Okay, it has taken me a lot of practice. Probably 30 years worth. That's why I got so excited about this pizza dough recipe - it is easy, handles well, tastes delicious, pretty cheap, and above all homemade. I just want to be able to make it with the same results all the time.

The slightly thicker rim puffed up nicely and provided the chewy factor; the crust itself held up with no sagging when holding a wedge on the sides. And the pup approved of the crust too - he gets tidbits of the edges whenever I make pizza.

Ooooh... waxing poetic over pizza dough - I love it!

I've never had Papa John's pizza, but there was a place in Santa Rosa called La Vera Pizza that was my personal benchmark for the pizza I wanted to recreate at home. This crust has come closer than any others I've tried.

We are having pizza tonight - hot Italian sausage with mushrooms, caramelized onions and olives on my half. Perhaps not the fanciest New Year's Eve meal, but along with a bottle of wine, some salad and a game of Scrabble, it works for us :-)

We also share our crusts with the dogs - we have two 6mo puppies who are aka the Rhodesian (Ridgehound) Devils. But they sit very nicely for their pieces of crusts LOL.

Becky

I really want to try this dough recipe, but I have a couple of questions. The dough is made with liquid milk and left at room temperature for 24 hours. Is this a problem? I'm thinking about spoilage. Could the dough rest in the refrigerator? Or does the souring milk give the dough its slight sourdough flavor?

Also, I never have liquid milk around, but I always have canned evaporated milk or powdered dry milk. Do you think those could work as substitutes?

Thanks for your advice.

Thanks Becky, for letting me know about the thickness..
Right now I've been making two batches of Lou's dough, one for each pizza. I'll do that with this one..and see..I've got my bucket all cleaned and ready for tomorrow to start the dough..(it had chicken stock chilling for fat removal in it yesterday..) LOL I need two buckets!!!

Shambo,
I would use canned milk reconstituted with an equal amount of water or mix up some dried milk and water and use that. The dough did not taste at all spoiled sitting out for almost 24 hours. Do not warm the milk as the directions Becky gave do not call for it to be warmed.

Teresa

Thanks, Teresa. I'm going to give it a try soon.

Shambo - I also was a little leery about leaving the dough out for 24 hours with the milk in it, but as Teresa said, it doesn't spoil. It does have a slight sourdough flavor, which I think is from the milk. I also have an overnight yeast-raised waffle recipe that includes milk that's left out all night, and it too has a slight sourdough flavor.

I don't know why the recipe specifically calls for 2% milk - I have a 14yo son so I'm rarely without milk in the house, and since 2% is what I buy it hasn't been an issue for me. I don't see any reason why you couldn't use either reconstituted dry or evaporated milk. As Teresa said, don't warm it - I start with cold milk right out of the fridge.

I hope you enjoy it - Happy New Year :-)

Becky

Thanks, Becky. It struck me last night that I've even seen sourdough starter recipes that use milk and leave the mixture out for several days before using. I'm sure our great grandmothers didn't refrigerate everything, although they probably tried to put things in cool parts of the house.

well I have a batch on the counter...I figured I'd just do one crust with this..and test it side by side Lou's Dough...
I used 1 c white wheat, 2 c white flour...and I used raw milk(whole) that was starting to sour already.

We shall see tomorrow night....

My oldest son loved it...hubby said stick with Lou's...I did like the flavor...it was very "Fluffy", like a raised breadstick..

I made this recipe yesterday for tonight, have my sauce reacy, and hoping this is as good as everyone says. However; I would like know the recipe for Lou's Pizza dough. Would appreciate this as I don't want to miss anything. Thanks.

Lou's Pizza Dough
1 c warm water
2 1/2 t yeast
2 T sugar (I just added in an iced tea spoon worth, so you could avoid..but I find when using wheat flour it needs a little sugar or sweetener. I some times squirt in a bit of honey or Agave.)
1/4 c oil (I added in one small glug.)
1/2 t salt
3 1/2 c flour
1/2 c whole wheat
~I use 2 cups white and 1 c whole wheat, I've never used 4 cups of flour.
Also when using wheat, it seems to help to have the dough a bit wetter..whole wheat absorbs more liquid and needs it to not be so "rough".

I pour the water, yeast and sweetener into a bowl big enough to mix the whole batch. Let set for a bit to bloom the yeast. 6 or 7 minutes later I stir it well, pour in some oil and leave it again for a few minutes while I grate cheese or brown sausage. Then I add in 3 cups of flour 2 white, 1 WWheat and a big pinch of sea salt. Stir until it starts coming together with a fork..Then go in with my hand and start "working" into a ball. Form it into a ball and let sit on the counter, dust with flour if you want to avoid sticking. Let the dough rest a few minutes while again working on the sauce or toppings.. (the dough should be sticky) with some flour on the bench and some sprinkled over the ball of dough, start working the dough out into a circle or rectangle. Sprinkle the baking stone with corn meal and then move the dough over to the pan and stretch to your size. I tend to like the dough a bit thinner, so I usually make two 10-12" pizza's with one batch of dough..However the guys like fluffy deep dish pizza. So last night I used one batch of dough for each 15" pizza. Form the pizza dough to the size and shape you want, par bake at 450 until it starts to just turn golden on the top edges..Pull out, sauce, top and bake in the oven to melt the cheese and finish baking the crust.

Thanks for Lou's recipe. I did make an Artisinal pizza last night and was very pleased with how easy the dough was to work with and it came out great. Additionally, my little pooch thought it was very good!

Glad to hear there was another success using the Artisinal recipe, and now I have to give Lou's a try to see how it compares :-)

Becky

Thanks for posting my interpretation of Lou's Dough Coconut!
I now make it with 1T of Honey and 1T of EVOO and the 2 c white flour and 1 c wheat.

Thanks for the recipe. I'm doing everything in my willpower to not go get a late night slice. So what do I do, write about it to torment myself more. It's really good and I will be making it again. I wasn't sure it would turn out because it looked very "ugly" when I covered it to let it sit. I did knead it three hours before using - I had to smooth the dough out a bit as the look was driving me nuts - no harm done. Thanks again.

I'm not sure that I didn't screw up this recipe. Is it supposed to be gooey? I used out-dated yeast and it didn't rise the first day in a cool kitchen. I was going to chuck it, but I'm, um, a not so great housekeeper, and I left it sitting next to the sink overnight with plans to scrape out the goo the next morning. Lo and behold, the following day it was all bubbly with a lovely sourdough odor, so I chucked it into the refrigerator for 24 hours. I took it out today and kneaded in enough flour to make it more or less manageable and am now waiting a few hours for it to warm up. The smell is great, but it's really soft! Did I mismeasure or is it supposed to be like this?

Yes the dough is very soft. No, I don't think it needed refrigerating for 24 hours, and no, it doesn't need much kneading. If you followed the recipe on the very first post of this thread and did not mismeasure, then yes, the dough is supposed to be very soft. I rolled mine out on a well floured pastry cloth and didn't have any problems at all.

I hope your crust tastes as good as mine did!

Can't wait to try this pizza dough----have to go to town to purchase the yeast (live 35 miles from town). My question is, I don't own a pizza stone. Will this work on a regular pizza pan?
Thanks

How exciting that so many people are having success!

Motherhubbard, yes you can use a regular pizza pan, but I don't think you'll get the same texture as you do with a stone. When you preheat the stone and put the pizza on it, it draws the moisture from the dough and makes the crust chewy or crispy if it's thin enough.

I used to have an expensive Pampered Chef stone, but when it broke I replaced it with two inexpensive ones and I'm just as happy with them. They cost $10 each and you can buy them at Wal Mart, among other places. Maybe if you're going into town anyway ... Seriously, for less than the price of one small pizza you can have the stone. Add a large wooden pizza peel and you'll be set.

And BTW, you can freeze the yeast and it'll last just about forever. I buy my yeast in 3 pound bags from Costco and put it in the freezer, keeping a small jar in the fridge that I replenish. I have never had a problem with it not rising as expected, and I only buy a new bag ever couple or three years.

Good Luck!

Becky

Becky,
My question is this: I have a pampered chef stone, and I don't use it too much. Can I preheat this stone? It seems to me that the instructions said that I shouldn't with a PC stone, but I can't remember. Don't like to bake cookies on it; takes longer and result wasn't great--in my opinion.

Re: preheating a stone - I don't know why you can't preheat the PC stone. I mean you have to preheat a pizza stone for it to bake the crust. Can you put the stone in a cold oven and then turn on the heat so it gradually warms up? I keep my stone in the oven all the time and heat it to 500 F for about 30 minutes until it gets good and hot. And I never spray the stone with a no-stick spray - not even the first time I used it.

If this stone doesn't bake pizza like you think it should, don't give up! You can get about 4-6 unglazed terra cotta tiles from a home store, line an oven rack with them, heat them up and bake your pizza right on the tiles. And the tiles are cheap.

Becky,
I think I might try this recipe as a bread loaf, a long thin baguette. I love to make bruschetta and this bread just might be a good loaf for that. I'll post my results here when I get around to trying that.

Teresa

Deniselie - you got me wondering about the PC stone so I looked on their website to see what they said. In a nutshell, it says to avoid extreme temperature changes - I will post a link to the page at the bottom. I used a PC stone for a long time, preheating it just as I do the less expensive ones I have now. It did eventually break, but I think that was through normal use, not from the preheating. I also recently had one of the cheaper ones break too, but not until I'd used it for almost 4 years with no problems.

Teresa - I'll be curious to see what kind of results you get from making the dough into a baguette. A friend I gave the recipe to made breadsticks and said they were good.

Becky

Here is a link that might be useful: Pampered Chef stones use and care

Becky- Thank you so much for this recipe. DH declared it a definite keeper. So easy, yet so good.
Thanks,
Linda

Teresa and Becky--both of you thanks so much. I am anxious to try again--this time using one or both of the submitted recipes. We are in the middle (almost end) of kitchen remodel, so I am anxious about a few things!

You guys are great. I am sooo very happy that I found my way to the GW website. Happy Baking !

I've got my mind set on a BBQ chicken pizza....mmmmmmm! Maybe for Friday night or the weekend. I'm going to make one pizza and do the baguette with the other half of the dough.

Becky, I'm thinking about putting in 2-3 TB of cornmeal in place of the same amount of flour. I like the crunch of cornmeal in pizza crust. What do you think?

T.

Yummy! BBQ chicken pizza is one of our favorites too :-)

We also like the crunch of cornmeal on our pizza crusts, but I use polenta on the peel to get that effect. For a while there I was using parchment paper under the crusts and just setting the crusts on the stone paper and all, but we missed the cornmeal flavor and crunch. I have a little whisk broom I use to dust the leftover cornmeal off of the stone so it doesn't burn if I'm baking more than one.

I'll be curious to see what your experiment yields - I wouldn't think that replacing that small amount of flour with cornmeal would cause any problems.

I have a batch of the dough in the freezer (the first time I've frozen it, as an experiment), and now I'm hungry for pizza so I guess I'll have to take it out and make some this weekend too. Maybe one BBQ chicken and one sausage and mushroom, just because I can LOL.

Linda - I'm glad your pizza was a hit!

Deniselie - I've never done a kitchen remodel, but we did do some hardwood floors in our last house which necessitated living in the family room with only a microwave and crockpot for a while, so I can only imagine what that must be like. I think I'd be daydreaming about the meals I'd make too...

Becky

Tonight I made the BBQ Chicken Pizza I wanted to try. It turned out pretty good, I thought. I did forget to add the 2 TB cornmeal to the dough last night (my brain shuts down at 5 pm) but the crust was still delicious and easy to work with on a floured pastry cloth. I had the oven up to 475 F but 500 F would have been better. The crust got done, but didn't brown too much. I was afraid that sweet sauce was going to burn, but it didn't.

I made my sauce with equal parts of Kraft's Original BBQ sauce and chili sauce plus 2 TB honey. I chopped up some fried chicken breast from the store, thin sliced onions and green bell pepper and grated some Monterrey Jack cheese. Here is a pic:

{{!gwi}}

I made a small baguette with the other half of the pizza dough. I formed it, put it on a parchment lined baking sheet, let it rise for 30 minutes, slashed it and baked at 450 F on the sheet for about 15 minutes. It looks great! I just took it out and will let it cool before I cut into it. The loaf feels pretty heavy for its size, so I'm hoping the crumb will be nice and dense. I'd like for this to be my bruschetta loaf, since the recipe is soooooo easy. Also, I plan to try breadsticks with this dough also.

Teresa

Teresa- your pizza looks fabulous! I never thought about using a fried chicken breast from the deli, but I bet that gives it a nice crunch.

I'll be curious to hear the results of the baguette test. I'm not making pizza this weekend sine I have a terrible head cold and can't taste a darn thing. It'll have to wait until I can taste again LOL.

Becky

The baguette looks nice, but I think I will reserve this recipe for pizza dough and try the Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes for my bruschetta loaf. I pulled the dough into a rough rectangle and rolled up like a jelly roll to make a long thin baguette. So....the insides looks a little like a pinwheel and does not hold its shape too well. Plus, I had some nice rustic "void" or holes in the finished loaf - which is not altogether a bad thing, just not wanted in a loaf you will slice, toast and top for bruschetta.

Thanks for reporting back Teresa - too bad the dough wasn't quite what you were looking for. I've been thinking about making a foccacia out of the batch I have in the freezer. perhaps it's better suited for that rather than a loaf shape. Will experiment if I ever get over this cold...

Becky

I think your idea to fix focaccia from this dough is a good one, Becky! You could pat/roll out the dough to a rectangle a little thicker than the pizza dough. Let rise a few minutes, dimple with your fingers, pour on some EVOO, add some herbs/caramelized onions/cheese/whatever and some salt, then bake. Sounds good to me.

Take care of that cold.
Teresa