Colleen, Here is the recipe for Julia Child's French Baguettes. On my days off each week, I usually make a double batch of this bread dough. The dough goes into the fridge after it's first rise and is left for two to three days. This long cold fermentation develops more flavour and texture in the bread and makes the perfect dough for a pizza crust. Thin crust with a light,airy, chewy rim. How I Make My Pizza Home Cookin Chapter: Recipes From Thibeault's Table French Baguette =============== Julia Child 1 package dry active yeast (2 1/2 teaspoons) 3 1/2 cups unbleached flour (bread flour) (NOTE: I use 4 cups) 2 1/4 tsp salt 1 1/3 cups cold water plus 1/3 or so additional water Place the flour, yeast and salt in the bowl of the food process. Pulse to mix. Add 1 1/3 cups of water and process until the dough comes together. If the dough doesn't form a ball, add a little of the extra water. Process for about 60 seconds, turn off machine and let dough rest for 5 minutes. Turn on the machine again and rotate the dough about 30 times under the cover, and then remove it to a lightly floured work surface. it should be fairly smooth and quite firm. Let the dough rest for 2 minutes and then knead roughly and vigorously. The final dough should not stick to your hands as you knead (although it will stick if you pinch and hold a piece); it should be smooth and elastic and, when you hold it up between your hands and stretch it down, it should hold together smoothly. Preliminary rise - 40 to 60 minutes at around 75F. Place the dough into a clean dry bowl, (do not grease the bowl), cover with plastic wrap, and set in a warm place free from drafts. (note the French do not grease the bowl because they believe the dough needs a seat to push up from). This first rise is sufficient when the dough has definitely started to rise and is about 1 1/2 times its original volume. Deflating: Turn the dough onto your lightly floured work surface roughly and firmly pat and push it out into a 14 inch rectangle. Fold one of the long sides over toward the middle, and the other long side over to cover it, making a 3 layer cushion. Repeat the operation. This important step redistributes the yeast throughout the dough, for a strong second rise. Return the dough smooth side up the bowl; cover with plastic wrap and again set to rise. Final rise in the bowl - about 1 to 1 1/2 hours or longer. The bread should be 2 1/2 to 3 times its original bulk. It is the amount of rise that is important here, not the timing. To Shape, Cut the dough in half. Set one piece aside and cover with a towel. On a lightly floured work surface pat the dough into a 14 inch rectangle, squaring it up as evenly as you can. Fold the rectangle of dough in half lengthwise and using the heel of your hand, firmly press the edges together whether they meet. Seat well. Pound the dough flat. Now repeat - patting the dough out again and folding it over and sealing the edges. Pinch the edges well and Rotate the dough so that the sealed edge in on the bottom. Repeat with second piece of dough. Cover with plastic wrap or loosely with a towel and let rise to more than double again at about 75°f. Place stone in oven and Preheat oven to 450°F. Slash three long cuts into the loaves and place on the hot stone. Immediately toss a number of ice cubes on to the bottom on the oven to create steam. Bake until bread is golden and has an interior temp of 200°F. Takes about 30 minutes. Making Dough in a Mixer or by Hand When you are making dough in an electric mixer with a dough hook, proceed in the same general way with the rests indicated, and finish by hand. or mix the dough by hand in a bowl, turn out on a work surface, and start the kneading by lifting it up with a scraper and slapping it down roughly for several minutes until it has body. Let it rest several minutes and then proceed to knead. This is the recipe I use as a basic outline. I use it more as a guideline. I have a Magic Mill that I use to do most of the kneading. I still like to finish kneading by hand.

Gorgeous bagels Shaun! I'll take a poppy please. We like the no-knead dough for pizza, the Cook's Illustrated recipe 3 Cups AP flour 1 2/3 cups water, room temp 1 1/4 tsp salt 1 1/2 tsp instant yeast (I used my bread machine yeast and it was fine) 1 1/4 tsp sugar (I used agave nectar) 5 Tbs EVOO Mix flour, water & Salt in mixer fitted with a dough hook for a few minutes on low, just to combine everything. Let dough rest 20 min. Sprinkle yeast and sugar over dough. Mix on low speed, just to incorporate all the ingredients, scrape the bottom. Increase mixer to high for about 5 - 10 minutes (I only needed 5) until dough is smooth and glossy and pulls away from sides. Coat a large bowl with olive oil, transfer dough to bowl, turn dough over in bowl so it's coated, cover with plastic wrap and let it rise at room temp for 2 - 2.5 hours. You'll see large bubbles and it will have tripled in size. Before rising, I put mine in the refrigerator wrapped, then pulled it out about 4 hours before I needed it to let it come to room temp and rise all the way. Put a pizza stone in oven and preheat to 450. Let the over rest at 450 for a while, so the stone gets good and hot. Rim a baking sheet with oil and turn dough out onto the sheet, stretching it with your fingertips. If it shrinks back a lot, let the dough rest for a few minutes and stretch it again. Let the dough rest in the pan until a little bubbly, maybe 10 minutes. Poke the surface with a fork all over, sprinkle with salt and bake until golden brown, 20 to 30 minutes. Pull it out and top it with whatever makes you happy and put it back in the oven for a few minutes. Often though, I'll make a batch of half whole wheat half bread flour pizza dough in the bread machine. It's so quick and easy, less than 5 minutes to load the machine and then I stick a couple bags in the refrigerator for whenever we're going to have pizza that week. That pizza looks yummy Ann. I also love mushrooms and black olives. Unfortunately, I'm the only one here that feels that way. AM

I made Lou's again lastnight. Here's the recipe. Lou's Pizza Dough 1 c warm water 2 1/2 t yeast 2 T sugar (I just added in an iced tea spoon worth, so you could avoid..but I find when using wheat flour it needs a little sugar or sweetener. I some times squirt in a bit of honey or Agave.) 1/4 c oil (I added in one small glug.) 1/2 t salt 3 1/2 c flour 1/2 c whole wheat ~I use 2 cups white and 1 c whole wheat, I've never used 4 cups of flour. Also when using wheat, it seems to help to have the dough a bit wetter..whole wheat absorbs more liquid and needs it to not be so "rough". I pour the water, yeast and sweetener into a bowl big enough to mix the whole batch. Let set for a bit to bloom the yeast. 6 or 7 minutes later I stir it well, pour in some oil and leave it again for a few minutes while I grate cheese or brown sausage. Then I add in 3 cups of flour 2 white, 1 WWheat and a big pinch of sea salt. Stir until it starts coming together with a fork..Then go in with my hand and start "working" into a ball. Form it into a ball and let sit on the counter, dust with flour if you want to avoid sticking. Let the dough rest a few minutes while again working on the sauce or toppings.. (the dough should be sticky) with some flour on the bench and some sprinkled over the ball of dough, start working the dough out into a circle or rectangle. Sprinkle the baking stone with corn meal and then move the dough over to the pan and stretch to your size. I tend to like the dough a bit thinner, so I usually make two 10-12" pizza's with one batch of dough..However the guys like fluffy deep dish pizza. So last night I used one batch of dough for each 15" pizza. Form the pizza dough to the size and shape you want, par bake at 450 until it starts to just turn golden on the top edges..Pull out, sauce, top and bake in the oven to melt the cheese and finish baking the crust. Lastnights pizza was deemed the best so far by my 16 yr old. I went back to using Lou's dough, used one batch per pizza and made my own sauce and didn't go super gloppy on the cheese.

Pizza Hut isn't really what I meant by a decent pizza place. It's basically fast food and doesn't have the kind of wonderful flavor a good pizza dough has, even if they'd sell you dough. Certainly not worth 45 min. drive. My pizza recipe is based on this one: http://www.food.com/recipe/100-whole-wheat-pizza-dough-and-pizza-tips-436030 I've made it as stated and it makes good pizza. The changes I've made for myself are to suit my wheat and my tastes. I don't know if this has enough guts (i.e., well developed gluten that isn't cut by the bran content) to stand up to direct grilling (i.e., on a grate or grate pan), though you could certainly make it on a solid pizza pan on the grill. It runs sticky, so oiling the pan is a good idea. It's best to use a high protein whole wheat flour, like King Arthur hard (soft is for cakes). You could sub in some bread flour, like in Lars's recipe or add some vital wheat gluten to up the gluten as well. My version uses home milled flour (finest setting on electric flour mill appliance). You can buy both hard white whole wheat flour and hard red whole wheat flour, but you could use all of either. Use the very freshest flour you can get if you don't mill your own or you'll need more sweetening, like the honey in the linked recipe. I do the combination for flavor. All red is too sharp and overwhelms the toppings. All white whole wheat isn't tasty enough. 100% Whole Wheat Pizza Mill flour: 204 grams hard white wheat 135 grams hard red wheat Add to mixer bowl with: 22 grams barley malt powder (diastatic or middle of the road, not sweetener only) Pinch or scant 1/8th tsp ascorbic acid (vitamin C crystals) 7 grams dry salt (any kind) (heaping tsp.) scant 2 grams active dry yeast (heaping 1/2 tsp.) 241 grams water 22 grams olive oil (I use EVOO for the flavor, and it seems to be well enough shielded by the dough not to go weird at the high heat) Mix with Danish Dough Whisk or flat wooden spoon and let rest for about five minutes. Knead in mixer with dough hook for about five minutes. Transfer dough ball to baking surface (silicone mat, lightly oiled is good), and cut into usable portions (don't use a sharp knife on silicone mats--use a bench scraper or the back of a knife). This recipe makes one really big pizza, two medium, or four individual. An individual portion is about 152 grams. Spray sandwich ziplocs with oil and put each portion in one, or the whole thing in a larger bag. Put all the bags in a gallon bag. Chill (hydrate) for at least 24 hours (i.e., put in fridge for a slow rise). Remove dough from fridge and turn out onto oiled thin aluminum pizza pan when you preheat the oven with baking stone to 475°-500° F. Shape the dough into a round, using gravity, as usual, or press to the sides with your fingers, but don't overwork--too much handling cuts the whole wheat gluten and spoils the rise. Let it rest for about half an hour. After it has relaxed a little, you can adjust the shape. Add toppings. Bake for 9 minutes, or whatever is appropriate for your oven. N.B. -- In my experience, this dough is at its best 2 days after being made. 24 hrs. is minimum and okay. Two days is spot on. Three days is fine. Four days and the yeast might be exhausted, or nearly, so you'll have more of a thin crust/flatbread, but it's still good. If you're going to keep the dough longer than that, put it in the freezer right after making it up, and defrost overnight in the refrigerator. It will only keep, unbaked, a month or two in the freezer before the yeast gives up. A better way to keep it would be to bake all of the dough on the second day, either as pizzas or untopped (for untopped, dock the dough so it won't puff up--poke all over with a big fork if you don't have a docker). Pull them from the oven before they brown completely. Maybe 7 minutes. Put them on baking parchment or waxed paper wrapped cardboard, and wrap for freezing.