No Knead Pizza
No knead pizza recipe, with a crust that is crispy on the outside, and soft and chewy from the inside. No knead yeasted dough have always been around, but they need to be treated a bit differently compared to a “standard”, more user friendly, yeasted doughs, in particular because of their higher water content.
This trait is also known as “Hydration”, which actually is just the percentage of the liquids out of the total amount of flour in the recipe. The following no knead dough is at 75% hydration. While you experiment with making it, you will see that from a sticky, impossible to work with dough, it will become very supple, elastic and smooth.
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No Knead Pizza:
Equipment: Pizza baking pan sized 35 or 38 cm in diameter, or a baking sheet.
Recipe: Makes 1 large pizza or 2 individual pizzas.
No knead dough:
| Ingredient | Amount (g / units) |
| All Purpose Flour | 250g |
| Dry Yeast | 1/2 tsp |
| White Granulated Sugar | 1/2 tsp |
| Salt | 1 tsp |
| Olive Oil | 15g |
| Water | 190g |
For the sauce:
| Ingredient | Amount (g / units) |
| Crushed Tomatoes | 180g |
| White Granulated Sugar | 1 tsp |
| Salt | 1/4 tsp |
| Black Pepper | 1/4 tsp |
| Dried Basil | 1/4 tsp |
| Mashed Garlic | 1/2 tsp |
| Cornstarch | 1 tsp |
Cheese:
| Ingredient | Amount (g / units) |
| Shredded Mozzarella Cheese | 100g (or QS) |
Preparation instructions
For the sauce:
- Into a small saucepan, add all of the sauce ingredients: mashed tomatoes, sugar, salt, black pepper, dried basil, garlic and cornstarch, and mix well to combine.
- Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the mixture thickens. Set to the side to cool down.
For the dough:
- Into a medium mixing bowl, add all the dry dough ingredients: flour, yeast, sugar and salt. Mix them together to combine.
- Add in the oil and water and mix thoroughly about 2 minutes using a wooden spoon, until the dough looks like a somewhat smooth paste.
- Cover the bowl with a piece of plastic wrap and let the dough rest for 20 minutes.
- Using wet hands, fold the dough into itself by grabbing it from the bottom of the bowl, bringing it upwards towards the center. Repeat this folding step a couple of times more, rotating the bowl as you go. The intention here is to trap air inside the dough and develop the gluten structure. Wet your hands in between folds if you feel the dough is getting sticky.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rest for 20 minutes.
- Repeat above steps 4-5 for two more times (for a total of 3 folding-resting rounds). You can proceed with making the pizza at this stage, or refrigerate the dough for up to 24 hours.
- Pre-heat your oven to 220C (fan mode off), placing a backing rack at the lowest level inside the oven.
- Shape the dough into a ball and place it at the center of a pizza pan, lightly greased with olive oil, and sprinkled with semolina mill. Alternatively, you can place it on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, lightly greased with olive oil, and sprinkled with semolina mill.
- Using wet hands, spread the dough ball from the center, towards the edges of the pan. Try to maintain the pizza round, with a defined dough border as you go. The center part should be about 0.5cm thickness.
- Evenly spread the sauce on top of the dough. Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese and any of your favorite toppings.
- Bake the pizza for 15 minutes- the dough should slightly brown and the cheese should be bubbly.
- Allow the pizza to cool down a few minutes before cutting and serving.
