From our house-warming party to family dinners, our pizza dough has consistently gotten rave reviews. So I decided it was time to share the recipe for all to enjoy as part of StopTheRide’s Make it from Scratch carnival! You can see the rest of this week’s entries here: http://pjmommy.com/?p=693#comment-25955.

Pizza Dough (Recipe courtesy of the good folks at River Cafe in London)

Makes 2 large pizzas.

Sponge:
4 t dried yeast
125 ml water (1/2 cup)
150 g rye flour (about 2/3 cup)

Dough:
250 ml warm water (1 cup)
2 T milk
4 T olive oil
1 T salt
500 g flour (about 3-4 cups)

Mix the ingredients for the sponge and leave to rise in a warm place for 30 minutes to an hour. We’ve tried other flours and rye really does impart the best flavor and texture!

I then throw the sponge in the bread machine with the rest of the dough ingredients and process on the dough setting. If you don’t have a bread machine, you can mix, knead for 10-15 minutes, and leave covered in a warm place to rise for 2 hours. This dough is really good if you keep it in the fridge after rising over night and will get a mellow sourdough flavor to it the longer you let it sit.

We typically make one pizza for the four of us on Friday night, then throw the other half of the dough in the fridge for a quick dinner or lunch later in the week. It will keep up to a week if it’s tightly wrapped so that it won’t pick up fridge smells.

The dough should be fairly wet and will require an ample dusting of flour on the counter and on top of the dough before you roll it out. It’s best rolled thin (1 inch at the thickest, 1/2-1/4 inch is even better!). Some good topping combinations:

• The Kids’ Choice - tomato sauce, mozarella cheese, black olives
• Parents Preference - pesto, kalamata olives, herbed goat cheese
• Veggie Meat Lovers - Boca Italian sausage, Quorn pieces, tomato sauce, black olives, mozarella
• Three Cheese - Ricotta, mozarella, and provolone with pesto or tomato sauce

Pizza is pretty much sacred in this household, and this is really the best of all the dough recipes I’ve tried. Enjoy!

Posted: 03|6|08 at 6:36 am. Filed under: Cooking, Make Your Own.
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