Oh man… I am getting really good at making pizza.

I’ll get to that in a moment. First, I’d like to report the sad death of my pizza stone…

It broke while I was baking a pizza on it, oven door closed, no drastic change in temperature… So I think it was just due to the fact that it was a cheapo stone. As soon as it broke, I ordered a new one from The Pampered Chef. It’s bigger, better, and it has sweet handles!

Anyway, back to the pizza dough experiment. For version 1.2, I played with fermentation temperature. I wasn’t getting a good rise out of my dough, so I did an experiment to find the cause of the problem. First of all, I bought new yeast since I had a feeling that the yeast I was using was a little on the old side. That turned out to be absolutely the case, as both the refrigerated and room temperature dough rose significantly more than version 1.1.

So that mystery was solved. Now there’s the matter of refrigerated vs. room temperature proofing. As it turns out, I got a similar rise out of each. I let the room temperature dough rise for about 4 hours before shaping, topping, and baking. Here are before and after pictures:

The crust came out great! The texture was much better than version 1.1 – it was lighter, less dense, and really quite perfect if I do say so myself.

I let the refrigerated dough rise overnight and baked it the next day. And I pretty much got the exact same results. Again, before and after pictures (it looks like more dough, but that’s only because the bowl was smaller than the previous):

The resulting crust was pretty much identical to the room temperature proofed crust. One thing I did notice was that the refrigerated dough was a little easier to shape than the room temperature dough.

There was also a third portion of dough that I proofed at room temperature, then refrigerated overnight before baking. There was no change in the crust’s texture this way, but the dough did seem a little less sturdy while I was shaping it.

Overall, each method of proofing the dough gave me the same kick-ass result:

So, I think I’ll stick with the refrigerated proofing method. The dough was easiest to work with this way.

The two other small changes I made for version 1.2 were that I added a little more honey and subtracted a little salt, for the sole purpose of enhancing the flavor. And wow did it work. I’m gonna go ahead and say that this was the best pizza dough I have ever tasted. Seriously, it was that good. A hint of sweetness, the perfect light texture with just the right amount of chewiness… Fantastic!

And so, here we have it – my finalized pizza dough recipe.

Pizza dough version 1.awesome

1 lb King Arthur bread flour

8 oz water (52%)

1 tbsp olive oil (2.7%)

2 tbsp honey (9.4%)

2 tsp kosher salt (1.3%)

2 ½ tsp active dry yeast

Combine the flour, oil, honey, salt, and yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment. Add the water and mix on low speed until combined, about 1-2 minutes. Let the dough rest for 5 minutes. Switch to the dough hook and kneed on medium-low speed for 2-3 minutes. The dough should be a pretty tight ball, ever-so-slightly tacky, and should not stick to the bowl.

Lightly oil a bowl that’s twice the size of the dough. Roll the dough ball in the oil to coat it, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 8 hours.

Remove the dough to a lightly oiled work surface, cut it into four pieces, and shape each piece into a ball. Place each ball on a lightly oiled piece of parchment and loosely cover with plastic wrap. Allow to come to room temperature for 1 ½ to 2 hours. (If not using all the dough at once, return the rest to the refrigerator tightly wrapped in plastic.)

Once the dough is at room temperature, you can shape it, place it on a pizza peel dusted with corn meal, top it, finesse it onto a pre-heated pizza stone (as hot as your oven will allow), bake it, and enjoy it. And trust me, you will enjoy it.

My pizza crusade isn’t over yet. Now that I’ve perfected (at least in my mind!) my pizza dough recipe, it’s time to work on the second most important element of a pizza — the sauce. I’ve already got pizza sauce version 1.0 in the fridge, ready and rarin’ to go for tonight’s pizza. Stay tuned to see the recipe and find out the results!