Peasant Pizza

You really should just head over to alexandracooks.com because she is the real bread and pizza expert. This is her recipe and she explains it really well with pictures and explanations. Many of my favorite recipes, including this pizza recipe, come from her cookbook, Bread and Toast Crumbs, and from her blog. She also has a pizza cookbook coming out soon, which I can’t wait to buy! It’s called, Pizza Night. I don’t know her personally, but I have emailed her with questions about baking sourdough and she has personally written me back. Her recipes are well written and always work out perfect. I have tried dozens of pizza dough recipes and this one works best for us. We get those nice bubbles in the crust and it’s perfectly chewy, but crisp on the bottom too.

**tip** use a spray bottle for your olive oil and spray the parchment before placing and stretching your dough on it. Use your fingers to spread it and then leave the oil on your fingers so the dough won’t stick to your fingers or your parchment. It coats just enough so your pizza doesn’t stick, but it doesn’t make your pizza greasy.

Ingredients

• 4 cups unbleached all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons course sea salt
• 1 teaspoon instant yeast
• 2 cups lukewarm water

Supplies

• baking steel (my new preference because it bakes the crust really well), baking stone, or cast iron skillet
• flat cookie sheet or pizza peel
• parchment paper

**This will make 4 or 5 good size pizza crusts and feeds my family of 5. The last time we made these, we each made our own pizza because we all like different sauces and toppings and it made 5 perfect size personal pizzas. You can half this recipe if you don’t need that many pizza crusts. Or… you can make this recipe and freeze some for next time!

Topping Ingredient Ideas

• Meatlovers: marinara sauce, ground sausage, bacon, mushroom, onion, mozzarella cheese
• Sweet and Salty (my favorite): sour cream as the sauce with fig preserves, red pepper jelly, blackberry jam, etc. dropped in dollops as a topping, with prosciutto, arugula, kale or spinach, pickled red onion, mozzarella cheese, parmesan, and little bits of goat cheese
• Hawaiian: marinara sauce, pineapple, Canadian bacon
• Cheese: marinara sauce, mozzarella and parmesan cheese

Directions

For the dough:

In a medium bowl, mix the flour, salt and instant yeast and then add the lukewarm water. Lukewarm water should be between 110-119 Degrees Fahrenheit. Mix with a rubber spatula until a sticky ball forms. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let sit in a warm spot to rise until doubled for 1 1/2 hours or all day.

Place a baking steel or a pizza stone or a cast iron skillet in the oven at 550 degrees for at least 45 minutes. I know this sounds like a high temperature, but my oven hasn’t exploded yet!

After dough has risen, take two forks and deflate the dough and release it from sides of the bowl by turning the dough over itself. Turn the bowl and repeat until you have a rough ball.

Heavily flour a surface such as a wooden cutting board.

Divide the dough into 4-5 equal parts and pick up each part with the two forks and place on floured board.

Flour your hands well and roll or pinch the dough portions into balls, turning the dough under with your fingers and pinching it into a ball. This is a very high hydration or wet dough so it is really sticky, but that helps create the bubbles. Let sit for at least 30 minutes.

Once the dough has risen again, lightly spray with oil (I use a glass spray bottle for my oil) the 4-5 pieces of parchment paper that will go into the oven with the pizza. Spread the sprayed oil on parchment and leave oil on your hands to stretch the dough. Or flour your fingers… I do a little of both. It’s a little messy.

Place each dough on its own piece of parchment paper and with floured/oiled hands, stretch the dough outwards. Do not roll it or you will lose those yummy bubbles. Each dough will be about 8-10 inches in diameter.

Top each pizza crust with desired toppings.

Slide a flat cookie sheet or a pizza peel under the pizza topped parchment paper and slide parchment paper and pizza into oven.

Bake for 5-10 minutes, checking for doneness frequently.

If top is browned to your liking, but the bottom of the crust needs to be more crisp, heat up a large cast iron skillet or cast iron griddle (I used an old non-stick skillet last time and that worked too) on the stove on medium high heat and place cooked pizza on cast iron until the bottom of the crust is to desired doneness. I have to do this every time because I don’t like soggy pizza. Continually check the bottom of the crust until it is done so it doesn’t burn! *I did not have to do this step with my baking steel. The crust was perfectly browned and once it cooled on a cooling rack, it wasn’t soggy, but was soft and chewy.

Enjoy!