Easy Artisan Pizza
This is based off of Gerrano Contaldo’s, Jamie Oliver’s cooking buddy, recipe. I’ve made a few changes to get the crust more crunchy and flavorful. It’s probably the best homemade pizza recipe that I’ve ever eaten. The sauce is an original creation of mine, and is so easy and delicious!
- Prep Time2 hr 10 min
- Cook Time10 min
- Total Time2 hr 20 min
- Serving Size4 People
Ingredients
For the Dough
- 450 g Bread Flour Or All Purpose Flour (or approx 3 1/2 C)
- 50 g Wheat Flour (approx 1/3 C)
- 1 tsp salt
- 7 g yeast (2 tsp)
- 365 Grams room temp water (approx 1 1/2 Cups)
Items Needed
- Electric Mixing Bowl (optional)
- Parchment Paper
- Pizza Stone
For the Sauce
- 15 oz can tomato sauce
- 1 tbs fresh basil or 1 tsp dried
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- salt and pepper to taste
Pizza Toppings
- Fresh mozzarella
- Basil
- Pepperoni
- Tomatos
- Olives
- ANYTHING YOU DESIRE!
Method
The dough - 2 Hours Before Cooking
In an electric mixing bowl or large bowl, combine the flours. Add the salt to one side of the bowl, and yeast to the other side of the bowl. Then, use a fork to combine the flours with the salt and yeast.
Add in your water. Using your dough hook or a spatula, turn on your mixer to it’s lowest setting and mix for 10 minutes.
Leave the dough in the bowl and cover with a towel. Rise for 2 hours. Set a timer for 45 mins to heat up your pizza stone as it needs an 1 hour and 15 mins to heat.
After your 45 minute timer is done, put your pizza stone in your oven and set the oven to 525 Degrees F. Set a new timer for 1 hour and 15 minutes.
Once your 1 hour and 15 min timer is done, dust your counter top generously with flour. Pour the dough on top of the dusted counter. Dust the top of the dough again with more flour.
Using a sharp knife, bench knife or pizza cutter, cut the dough into 2-4 equal parts. (2 for 2 large pizzas, 4 for small individual pizzas).
Once your dough is divided, tear of sheet of parchment paper large enough to fit your dough. Dust your fingers with flour and stretch the dough to it’s desired size and thickness. Then place on the parchment paper
For the sauce
Add all the ingredients together in a bowl and stir until incorporated. Done!
Assembly And Cooking
Top with sauce, mozzarella cheese and favorite toppings.
Bake for about 7-10 minutes, or until the cheese is browned.
This pizza is a delight and I hope you enjoy it as much as we do. Pizza doesn’t have to be complicated, and this recipe proves that.
"Rich people love pizza, poor people love pizza, black people love pizza, white people love pizza." - Michael Scott
This is it! The Easy Artisan Pizza Dough that you’ve been looking for! You guys, I can’t tell you how many pizza recipes I’ve tried just to be let down. Something in the range of 30 or so different recipes. Each one that I held with the highest of hopes for. Each one that looked amazing in the photos. And each one an abysmal disappointment.
This pizza dough is crunchy yet chewy. Like the one’s you’d find in a restaurant with a brick oven. I wanted to be able to create the best pizza from home so that I could save some money, as well as have more control over the ingredients that go into pizza. Next time you order takeout, check the long list of ingredients that accompany it. It may shock you!
That's when I discovered Gennaro Contaldo through my favorite brit jamie oliver.
In my hunt to find the best pizza dough recipe, I stumbled upon a youtube video of an Italian man making homemade pizza dough. Who is this man? His name is Gennaro Contaldo and he is an Italian genius. He helped me understand that I was being too complicated. Simplify! Thank you Gennaro! So that’s what I did. I began using his recipe and tried it out on my sisters. They all LOVED it! One of my sisters had actually been to Italy, and took a pizza cooking class while she was over there. She asked if there was any whole wheat flour in the dough. Gennaro’s recipe, as amazing as it is, does not. She suggested next time trying to add a bit of whole wheat flour to see how it would compare.
THANK YOU SISTER HEIDI!!!! No, she’s not a nun, she’s my sister, but she is an angel. I added just a bit of whole wheat flour to the recipe, and it completely transformed my dough. It finally became the dream pizza that I had been looking for for all of these years. YES YES YES! The crust held up much better and the flavor was enhanced.
Another thing that really helped me create amazing pizza is a pizza stone. Some of you may not think that this is a big deal, but it makes such a big difference. If you don’t have a pizza oven (maybe someday), this is the next best thing. The trick is to make sure that you heat the stone all the way through before using it. This happens by putting your stone in the oven an hour before baking. Make sure not to cut corners on this. If your stone is too cool, it won’t cook the crust properly, and you may have a soggy bottom (if you said that in a British accent, I love you).
I love my pizza oven like I like my men - HOt!
Seriously guys, the hotter the oven, the better the pizza. When you’re making this pizza, crank that oven to it’s hottest temperature. Mine, and probably most oven’s, hottest temperate is 525 degrees F. Think about a pizza oven. Those things get super duper hot. A lot of pizza ovens cook around 800 degrees F. So don’t be shy about the heat. “Let’s kick it up anotha notch!” – Emeril
Another great tip for amazing pizza is amazing sauce. I like my pizza sauce a bit less sweet and a bit more salty. That’s one of the reason why I like to make it from scratch. I get to control the salt levels and I get to add fresh ingredients. The great thing about this sauce is that it only takes a few minutes to make and it’s so fresh. Just add all the ingredients into a bowl and boom! Yah done.
Easy Artisan Pizza | Method
Making this Easy Artisan Pizza dough starts by combining the white and wheat flours, salt, yeast and water in an electric mixing bowl or large mixing bowl. When placing your yeast and salt, first put the flour in the bowl. Then on one side add your salt. On the other side of the bowl add your yeast. Take a fork and mix them in a little bit into the flour that they are on top of. Just that little barrier helps the salt from killing or slowing down the yeast. Then add the water. Turn onto the lowest setting. Once the ingredients are just combined, turn off the mixer and give it a feel. It shouldn’t feel dense, but light and slightly sticky. If the dough feels too loose, add a few more tablespoons of white flour. This dough is meant to be somewhat loose so be careful not to add too much flour.
WHILE your dough is rising....!
While your dough is rising, be sure to cover it with a dry cloth. Set it aside for 2 hours. Next, set a timer for 45 minutes. Why? Did you know that pizza stones take about an hour to fully heat through?! I know, crazy right!?
Do I have to use a pizza stone? Well, I have gone about making pizza in many different ways. Remember the 30 or some odd pizza recipes I have tried? Well, through that trial and error, in order to get a crust that is bubbly and airy, and a bottom that is chewy and holds it’s shape, then a pizza stone is the only answer. I guess another answer could be that you own a pizza oven. Ah, someday. The pizza stone instantly adds concentrated heat to the dough, giving it a “spring” that is super important to making that awesome crust. So why do you have to cook it for an hour before using it? A pizza stone needs to heat all the way evenly through the stone. It needs time to do that. If you put your pizza on the stone and it’s not heated through, then your going to have cooked pizza on the top and gooey pizza on the bottom. It takes time for that stone to soak up the heat and to distribute it well.
Ok, back to business!
By now your oven should be smokin’ hot, and your dough should be risen. Gently take off the towel covering the dough. Prepare your individual sheets of parchment paper by tearing off personal pan pizza sized slices. Move it to where you’re going to be assembling your pizza. It’s not necessary to flour your parchment paper. On your counter, dust some flour generously and pour out the dough. Dust the top of the dough with more flour. This will make handling it more simple. Cut the dough into the desired sizes you want. For my family of four, we usually make personal pizzas, so I cut the dough into four pieces. Usually I make the hubbies a bit larger.
Now dust your fingers and pick up your dough on the edges. Slowly grab the edges and turn the dough into the circle, allowing the dough to sag, causing a gentle stretch. Continue until you’ve reached your desired size.
PRO TIP: If you tear your dough while stretching it, don’t try to pinch it to fix it. Instead, tear off a piece of dough from the edge, and “patch” the hole. Thank you Gennaro!
Time to add your toppings! Feel free to get creative here and put any type of sauces, toppings, herbs and cheeses. We usually go very American on this, but feel free to go artisan by using a balsamic glaze, or Italian with tomatoes, basil and mozzarella.
PRO TIP: Drizzle a small amount of olive oil around the edge for a crispier yet still moist crust. Delicious! You can also melt butter with garlic and brush it on the edges. Sooo tasty.
Using you hands, plate, the back of a cookie sheet, or if you’re super profesh, a peel, slide the parchment from the counter to the pizza stone. Let the pizza cook for about 10 minutes, or until the cheese is browning. Take out and you did it! You are amazing. Enjoy this Amazing Easy Artisan Pizza!
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