Ultimate Pizza Dough

There are 999 ways to make pizza dough.  And we’ve made tasty creations from tortillas, bagels, 100% whole wheat or pre-baked shells.  But for the best home made dough recipe you will want to add some amount of vital wheat gluten to your flour to enhance the texture.  This recipe uses a mixture of whole wheat and unbleached white flour, but you can use either in any portion just be mindful to adjust the water.  Freshly milled whole grain flour seems to need more moisture in order to form a nice consistency.

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Ultimate Pizza Dough

Difficulty: Medium Prep Time 400 min Cook Time 45 min Total Time 7 hrs 25 mins

Servings: 10

Ingredients

Servings

• 4 cups Whole Grain Flour (We milled winter wheat berries)
• 4 cups Unbleached Flour
• 1 cup Vital Wheat Gluten (If you must omit, add another cup of whole grain or white flour to total 9 cups)
• 1.5 cup Sour dough starter (You may substitute 2.5 TBL rapid rise yeast)
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 0.25 cups olive oil
• 3 cups water (you may need slightly more water if your dough comes together crumbling)

Instructions

1. Combine your dry ingredients in a large bowl
   
2. Add your sour dough starter, water and oil and mix with a wooden spoon until combined then turn out onto a large floured cutting board to kneed.
   
3. Kneed the dough for at least 10 minutes adding tiny bits of flour if it seems too sticky. But give it time, as you kneed the dough should come together and be smooth and easier to work with.
   
4. Divide the dough into four parts and roll each to fit into a baking sheet lined with parchment paper brush top with olive oil.
   
5. Cover each baking sheet with plastic wrap, making sure it is touching the top surface of the dough. Let rise for 8 hours.
   
6. Top with your favorite pizza sauce and toppings and bake in 400° oven for 45 minutes swapping racks and left to right half way through the cooking.
   

Note

It takes sour dough starter a good 8 hours to rise, thus the very long prep time.  If you use (can find during the pandemic) rapid rise yeast you could certainly use that.