This is the basic pizza crust I make almost every Friday afternoon. Before we go any further here, let me talk gluten. This is a recipe that needs high gluten flour — 13% or higher. Less gluten will make crusts that aren’t stretchy and will tear and they won’t have that chewy texture.

I love the High Mountain organic flour from Central Milling. You can also look for 00 flour among the bread flours at your local supplier. King Arthur flour makes 00 pizza flour too (though not organic). I usually keep 10lbs in the house because I make pizza for 8-10 people each weekend and I hate running out.

What you need:

Dough cutter or knife

A pizza stone if you have one and pizza peel

A medium bowl and bee’s wrap or cling film for proofing

Ingredients:

7g or 2 1/4 tsp. of yeast

1/2 cup of 00 flour

1 cup of water at room temperature

2 more cups of 00 flour

1 1/2 tsp. salt

2 Tbsp. Olive oil plus more for drizzling

Method:

Wisk the water with the yeast and 1/2 cup of 00 flour in a bowl (you can use the bowl of a stand mixer if you plan to use that for kneading.) Let the yeast develop for 10-20 min. You should see bubbles and floating bubbly bits of rising flour in the water.

Add the flour slowly with the salt and olive oil. You can use the dough hook on your stand mixer or bring the dough together with your hands. It should be a softer dough than a bread dough and have a bit more moisture but not be sticky.

Knead the dough till it’s really stretchy. 8 minutes at least with the stand mixer.

When it’s looking like a nice smooth stretchy ball, place it into a bowl oiled with olive oil and roll it over so its coated with oil — you do not want it to form a dry crust as it proofs. Cover with bee’s wrap or cling film and place in a warm spot. Ideally above room temperature for 1-1.5 hours.

When dough has puffed up to double in size, press the air out with your hand and either begin shaping pizzas or refrigerate it for later or even another day.

To Bake:

Pizza needs HEAT. That’s why people make brick ovens and run them at 800 degrees for pizza with that perfect slightly blistered crust with moisture trapped inside for the chew. Lower heat in a standard oven dries the crusts it out and tends to make the bottoms soggy.

Preheating a pizza stone helps a ton, you can place on in the oven or your BBQ at 450 or higher. Use lots of flour under your crust when you place it onto the heated stone or try cornmeal or semolina. We like to throw the dough on with no toppings for a minutes first then we throw on the sauce and toppings and bake till the crusts are nicely browned. Be careful! It’s easy to get burned working fast over a hot stone or BBQ. Remove from the oven with a pizza peel. We put the finished pizzas out on a big wooden board to serve as it helps absorb the heat under them. They get less soggy underneath. Sometimes we even put them on a cooling rack if we have time before serving.

Enjoy!