Qestions about Jim Lahey's no knead pizza dough

11 years ago

I don't have any of Lahey's books; I got the recipe from an old issue of Bon Appetit.

The recipe calls for 7 1/2 c. (1000 grams) all-purpose flour
4 tsp. fine sea salt
1/2 tsp dry yeast

Mix above and add 3 c. water. Mix and form gently into ball and let rise about 18 hrs.

My first question is: Can I halve this recipe? And second, after it rises and is being formed into balls to make the pizza (original recipe makes 6 pizzas), can I freeze some of the dough?

I live alone, and after many years of making pizza at home, I'm still looking for the perfect dough. I want to try this, but certainly can't use 6 pizzas--even small ones--at one time.

If anyone wants the whole recipe--it's actually broiled rather than baked--I'll be happy to post it.

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Comments (2)

User
11 years ago
I'm not a fan of any of the no knead breads. They lack flavour. But if that is the dough that you are going to make, rather than freeze the dough, I would just roll out the additional dough into pizza rounds and partially bake them. And then freeze. All you have to do then is pull the pizza crusts from the freezer, top with your favourite toppings and finish baking on a stone.

If you are interested in trying another pizza crust recipe, I can highly recommend Ken Forkish's recipe. The original recipe makes five pizzas but this person, - The Cooking of Joy, adapted it to make two.

Here is a link that might be useful: Ken Forkish Videos
grainlady_ks
11 years ago
I did a Bing search on - Jim Lahey's no knead pizza dough - and found recipes, information, as well as videos at the link below. Perhaps there is something there that addresses your questions. It's not one I've personally had any experience with. You might also check your local library and see if his book is available there, or through inter-library loan.

I wouldn't hesitate using 1/2 a recipe. I used 1/2 recipes when I made recipes from "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day" cookbook, which is another refrigerator dough.

I would also take ann_t's suggestion to par-bake the crusts and keep a stack in your freezer. I suggest a tight wrap of plastic wrap over each par-baked crust, then place them in a freezer zip-lock bag. Some rounds of sturdy cardboard between the crusts might help keep them from breaking.

Freezer yeast dough really needs to be specifically designed for freezer storage for the best results. Since freezing dough kills yeast, and there is very little yeast in this recipe, there is usually much more yeast in a freezer dough recipe to compensate. Freezing can also damage the gluten, so additional vital wheat gluten is often added to freezer dough, and all-purpose flour may not work as well as a high-protein bread flour since it has more gluten to begin with than all-purpose flour. The other thing about freezer dough, it only keeps 2-3 months, so you really aren't gaining much.

-Grainlady

Here is a link that might be useful: Jim Lahey's no knead pizza dough
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Qestions about Jim Lahey's no knead pizza dough

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grainlady_ks

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