Pizza Dough

I spent two summers in the pizza business.  Before my freshman year of college I delivered pizza for Domino's Pizza.  Domino's makes their dough in large regional facilities and ships it by refrigerated truck to the stores, where it is stored in refrigerators until a couple of hours before it is needed.  Prior to my sophomore year of college I worked for Mr. Gatti's Pizza.  My shift started with mixing the dough for the next day.  I also made pizzas for the buffet, delivered pizzas as needed, refreshed the salad bar, and cleaned the kitchen!

This pizza dough recipe represents the culmination of years of experience in developing the perfect dough!  When I first started making pizzas, I used a bread machine to mix the dough.  However, after a while, I realized it was faster to mix the dough by hand.  As I continued to study dough recipes, I came across a valuable tip that I had forgotten:  mix the dough the day before and let it slow-rise in the refrigerator.  This gives the dough a commercial quality consistency.

The recipe below probably most closely resembles the dough of California Pizza Kitchen. 

Prepare
Although you can use this dough immediately after mixing, allowing it to rise as directed below, and additionally allowing it to rest in the refrigerator for 24 hours, improves the consistency of the dough.

This makes one approx. 12 to 14-inch pizza or two personal pizzas.

Ingredients
2 1/4C flour
1t salt
1pkg rapid rise yeast*
3/4C water
3T olive oil

Directions
Combine flour, salt, and rapid rise yeast.  Heat water to temperature specified on yeast packet (typically 120-130 degrees).  Add water and oil to flour mixture and mix well, continuing to knead for several minutes.

Place in a bowl and let rise in a warm place** for approximately 1 hour or until dough has doubled in size.  Punch down the dough and place in a plastic container or plastic bag and place in the refrigerator overnight (24 hours).

Set out the dough 30-60 minutes before eating time.  Roll out or press out dough to the desired thickness (I like the "hand tossed" style that pizza restaurants have).  Using a fork, poke small holes in the dough to prevent bubbles from occurring during baking (I use a professional dough docker).  Preheat the oven to 475 degrees.  Add sauce, toppings, and cheese as desired and bake for 12 minutes.  Remove from oven, slice as desired, and enjoy!

* If using regular yeast, combine a packet of yeast with 1/4t sugar in 1/4c water (remaining water needed recipe would be 1/2c) heated to 100-110 degrees.  Allow to set for 10 minutes.  Small bubbles should form indicating that the yeast is still active.

** Place the bowl in an UNHEATED oven.  Set the temperature to 400 degrees and allow to preheat for 1 minute (60 seconds).  Turn off the oven.  This will achieve the ideal temperature for dough to rise.