I'm not sure it matters. I've seen recipes "priming" the yeast by mixing it with sugar water, and I've seen recipes that omit that step. I'm not sure the benefits other than a better rise. I now add the yeast to all the water rather than stir it in dry, for my bread machine recipes. Mine is like yours. I have found that the wetter/softer the dough the better as far as ease of stretching. But plenty of folks use the old method of combining the yeast with water and letting it foam up a bit due to the yeasties eating the sugar and breathing out . . . most modern yeast is pretty hardy/reliable. I combine with the lesser amount of water just to save a step . . .

So the amount of water doesn't matter? it’s odd that the ingredients ay 2-2.5 cups of water but that amount isnt mentioned in the recipe.

The recipe does state to add water "if needed". Similar pizza dough recipes call for 1 to 1.5 cups of water for that amount of flour so chances are you are going to need a good portion of it.

My white flour pizza recipes, whether 00 or AP or bread, call for 1.5 cups of water for about 3.5 cups of flour, so I'd say you'll probably want all or most of the 2-2.5 cups water for 5 cups of flour. If you're using ADY yeast, and you're confident it's not too old and hasn't gotten too hot, you probably don't need to proof it, but dissolving it in water and getting it bubbling first makes it easier to distribute well in that much flour. If you don't want the sweet taste, you can give it a spoon of the flour, instead of sugar. BTW, a packet of ADY is 2.25 tsp., so you can use one packet instead of the 2.5 tsp is you don't have a jar or bulk yeast.

I'm thinking that's just a crummy recipe. 5 cups flour yields 4-5 servings??? And then it says to divide into 6ths? I can make an entire pizza crust that serves at least 4 with about half that amount flour.

I think we are on the road to disaster. Its actually my adult son trying to make heads or tails from this recipe. Thanks for your help.

I'm pretty sure that 4-5 servings means 4-5 crusts :-)

Y'know, my mother had a lot of recipes in books she referred to, but they were guidelines or reminders, and her T&T dishes she made from them didn't actually exist on the page.

This is a good, foolproof recipe, if your son just wants pizza already. Great ingredients make the biggest difference, especially the flavor of the flour.

https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/the-best-pizza-dough/

Thanks again. Five crusts! oh no. Plllog i will forward that recipe to him.

My mom was a great cook. Shes still with us at age 104. I have looked through her clipped and handwritten recipe notebooks and am surprisedby how few were written out. Im sure she tweaked a lot of things but never made note of it.

And yes, better flour would be a good start!

So, even the recipe I linked is for something like four 10" pizzas, IIRC. Maybe two large pizzas. It should make up fine cut in half, or the extra dough can be frozen, as dough balls, disks or par baked as ready to top shells. Or as sauced and cheesed pizzas ready for extra toppings. Pizza is very flexible.

Yes, but gardengal, the recipe directions state 'divide the dough into sixths'...

This is the recipe I used last week:

Three pizzas

2-1/8 cups water

2 tsp malt powder (or 1 tsp sugar)

2-1/2 tbsp VWG (vital wheat gluten flour)

1 cup semolina flour
1-5/8 tsp IDY (instant dry yeast)*
3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

1-1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups bread flour

1 tbsp salt (Okinawan)

It has 2-1/8 cups of water and a total of 4-2/3 cups of flour. This will make three 16" diameter pizzas, but the four of us only ate two of them.

I have found that the oil is what makes the pizza dough stretchy. My Neapolitan pizza recipe does not call for oil, but I add a small amount anyway, but when the pizza is baked at 950°, the oil can be a problem.

I specified Okinawan sea salt for this because it dissolves more easily. When I use coarse salt in any bread recipe, I dissolve it in the water and only add the yeast with the last addition of flour. I also let all bread doughs rest for 20-30 minutes after the first mixing, and then I finish the kneading after the flour has had time to hydrate.

I also like to make the dough the day before I bake it - this also makes it easier to handle. I divide this dough into three equal portions (I weigh them to be sure) and store them in separate plastic bags in the fridge overnight.

Five cups of flour should make three to four pizzas, depending on the size of the pizzas.

Because of the amount of oil I use in this recipe, I do not oil the bags that I put the pizza dough in. When I make Neapolitan pizza, I let the dough rise in a plastic bowl, and it does not stick to the plastic. When you oil the bowl, you are adding oil to the recipe, but the recipe you posted probably needs the extra oil.

Lars, i think we better conquer badic pizza doigh before we try that recipe, but thank you for posting it.

What I posted is basic. You do not have to use all the different flours, I noted that the total amount of flour is 4-2/3 cups, and this can be all white flour, if that is what you have. It is somewhat better if you have bread flour, but it is not essential.

What is important is the proportion of flour to water and yeast. I think that your recipe has the right proportions of water to flour, which is about 1:2. or slightly less. This depends on how humid your environment is and how dry the flour is. I use different proportions in the desert than I do at the beach.

Your recipe seems to have a bit more yeast than necessary and bit less salt and oil than I would normally use. These variations will produce different results, and you can judge for yourself which variation you prefer, but flavor will be the main difference.

The one thing that stands out in the newspaper recipe is that it divides the dough into six equal portions, which would probably make six 11" to 12" diameter pizzas, depending on how thin you want the crust. If you make them 13" diameter, they will be extremely thin.

Weigh your flour....

1 pound of flour....AP or oo to 1 1/2 cups water.

I use the food processor because I don't have as tand mixer.

Put the flour, 2.5 tsps yeast 2 tsps salt a couple of teaspoons of sugar or honey and a tablespoon of olive oil.

If using a processor....put the flour etc into the processor and add ice cold water a little at a time until it comes together and forms a ball. process about 30 seconds, keeping your hands on the bowl so you can see that it gets warm but not too warm. you may need to add a couple of teaspoons more flour o a small dribble of more water to get the dough perfect.

If you are using a stand mixer, start with the water salt yeaste tc and add the flour as you mix....

When mixed, weigh the finished dough, divide into thirds by weight, wrap each portion in oiled saran or oiled baggies and refrigerate at least an hour, over night is better or up to about 4 days.

Shape while cold and it won't snap back at you.

You can mess with adding some malt powder....sourdough discard as part of the water, garlic and herbs, you can omit the sugar and oil if yol like, it's the texture you are going for.....and overnight in the refrigeratorw ill give you abetter flavor.

It does say "add more..water if needed".

Well yeah, 1/2 cup water to 5 cups of flour will get you plaster...HAHA!

Not that the amount of water doesn't matter. What I meant was, it doesn't matter if you dissolve the yeast in the water ahead of time or not. The amount of water matters A LOT. When I make breads I start with the smaller amount of liquid and then add more water if it needs it til it gets to the consistency I want. Ye olde "earlobe" description for bread dough. Pizza flour I like a little wetter, like maybe playdough that fell in a bucket of water and then you had to fish it out right away. ;) Flours vary so much in the amount of hydration they need that most bread liquid directions have to be somewhat vague.

That recipe is very similar to my pizza dough recipe, I don't see anything wrong with it. If you're concerned it has too much water, use less. I use half the recipe and get two large pizzas, so yes, that recipe will make four large pizzas or two HUGE ones with thick crusts . . .

If the dough is too wet, you can add more flour, kneed it in, and let it rest a bit and start again with stretching it out.

I make pizza a lot of Fridays. Had to start doing my own since the local pizza places are all terrible. They all serve the same pizza!! And it's not good. But it must please the locals.

Son said dough came out okay, not great. He’ll probably go around the corner to the pizza place next time! Thanks.

Lars's recipe has all the good stuff in it for flavor. My favorite pizza crust recipe is 100% whole wheat, but if you want a thicker crust, his recipe sounds great. Flavor for the WW and malt (which also improves the rise, as does the vital wheat gluten), and the EVOO provides body and flavor. Even the old grandma recipe will probably be better the next time through. I don't know what your son's ambitions are with pizza, but if he wants to become a connoisseur, there are websites devoted just to perfecting pizza. Though there's something to be said for the immediacy of a good pizza around the corner. :D

Funny, but i have two sons. One is a pizza connoisseur and uses an Oona Kodi pizza oven. The son mentioned above is an amateur at this. He was trying it out of curiousity but I think he’s done.

It does take a while to get the knack. I'm still working on mine. It's passable, better than what I can get locally, but I haven't made a really, really great one yet. There are a lot of variables, even with sauce. Last time hubs complained I didn't put enough on. I thought it was just right, perfect. So then there's individual taste too. That's why all the pizza in our town tastes the same, they have managed to find a pizza that is mediocre and inexpensive enough to please and not offend the majority and they serve it everywhere . . .

Your recipe is interesting Lars. I tried a semonlina flour recipe, didn't care for it for some reason, but maybe it was just too much of a good thing because I do like some semolina flour in my breads . . . same with whole wheat, I like a little for flavor but haven't liked the all whole wheat crusts. I have yet to try the malt I got, maybe this Friday. That's when we are most likely to have pizza, Friday or Saturdays.

FWIW -- We're not big pizza eaters, but we have made and enjoyed King Arthur's recipe a few times: https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/crispy-cheesy-pan-pizza-recipe First we made it in an 8-9"" cast iron skillet, then we bought a 10-11" one that yields a thinner crust. They're both great! And we especially liked putting the cheese directly onto the dough and then the sauce on top. It sounds upside down, but it's delicious.

I love my Ooni pizza oven, but I use it only for a very thin Neapolitan style pizza, as I'm sure your second son does as well. I think it is a fun activity to make pizzas in the Ooni oven, partly because they cook in only a minute. We always make two for the same meal, but more if we have company. We plan to have a pizza party in Cathedral City, once the kitchen renovation is complete.

We usually make our own pizza doughs from scratch, but last week tried an experiment. We bought dough from a good pizza house. We made a pizza from the unfrozen dough, directly. Good, but we felt the dough lacked the depth of flavor that our home-made dough has.

A week later, we made the same pizza but this time, after defrosting the dough, let it rest for about 24 to 35 hours before making the (same) pizza in the same way. This time the pizza crust had much better flavor — more character.

We usually let our home-made dough rest on a counter or in the fridge for about 2 to 3 days before using it for a pizza. When it rises, up, we stretch, fold, rotate, stretch, fold, rotate it.

The King Arthur Flour recipe I shared above says to "refrigerate it for a minimum of 12 hours, or up to 72 hours." That extra time and gentle rise make a huge difference in the final flavor.

Question:

“Thin pizza dough”

when ”thin” pizza dough/crust is wanted, how does the recipe change?

I would guess that less dogh is used, so it’s stretched out thinner, but that it is likely a more hydrated dough (thinner dough and thinner dough.) Then, my guess is that it is best if baked in a hot oven, hot stone for a few minutes. I’m going to imagine that thin dogh pizzas are not loaded up with toppings.

Re olive oil/oil:

My impressions are that oil will give a softer crust.

Lars, I envy you you Ooni oven.

If you like crackery thin pizza, that is a different recipe, but I make regular thin pizza by stretching it thinner. :) Really. As to toppings, if you don't par bake a thicker dough, and load up the center to the point where it's weighted down, it gets thin. Generally people who want thin crust aren't looking for a forest of toppings for the balance per bite, but thin doesn't prevent more toppings. what iit's baked on makes a big difference, IMHO. A clay "stone" will absorb excess moisture and give a nice solid bottom, from leathery to crusty to crunchy, depending on the recipe, heat, temp/time, etc. A pizza pan will give a more bready bottom. A steel gives a more leathery bottom, but that may also depend on recipe, etc. (I haven't played with it enough to know). I have a stoneware "stone" that's good for bread, but gives a very meh bottom to pizza. I haven't tried cast iron.

Thanks, plllog. I like different types of pizzas, and flatbreads.

My DH and I usually go for a hybrid Marghuerita (spelling) and take eausres to get a flavorful crust that is never soggy.

Eery now and then I want to make a wood/gas fired very hot oven pizza like this sort of thing,

but I prefer not to par cook any pizza.

About a year ago, someone posted a shopt of their earthen covered or clay-covered wood-fired bread oven. I think I’d lke to create something like that, unless I stumble across an unneeded $1,000 or $3,000 for a portable bread-pizza oven, stone, peel and so on.

Maybe that member‘s oven was alonf this line.

I've seen homemde pizza ovens made from regular red bricks, and from those superthick terracotta floor tiles. I'd want the tiles, at least for the floor. I'd bet it wouldn't be that hard to make your own freeform. Better if you can do the math. The reason classic fireplaces were rounded is that if the fire is in the center, at the focus of a parabolic shape, all the heat hits at crazy angles and is reflected straight out. Similarly, you can have the pizza at the focus and the parabolic dome above, and have all the rising heat reflected onto the floor of the oven. This is the principle of the beehive oven.

I do thin pizzas when I don't want to par bake, so as not to get that thin spot in ghe middle. :) Sometimes I want breadier. My whole wheat recipe is the best, and thin. :)

I grew up on New York thin crust pizza....the kind you flip the point over to eat. Soft crust, very thin not heavy with toppings, delicious! Flavor comes from the sauce and excellent cheese, not that mostly tasteless mozzerella we so often see other places.

I loathe the thin crust. ( sorry ) It is like a cracker with toppings most of the time. I like a thick bready crust. What we called decades ago a Sicilian pie. Detroit Style Pizza has this. Made with brick check instead of mozzarella. The cheese is rich and creamy and not very stringy.