I have resigned myself to the fact that I am never going to reach pizza perfection. Yes, I know that perfection is a ever moving target that changes with ones palate and food experience, but I always love the pursuit. Just like my search for the perfect burger, the goal is to get to a point where the cost of labor/time/ingredients are too high to justify squeezing that last percent of performance. (Smarter people than I call it the “law of diminishing returns.”) Making pizza at home has a built in limitation, the home oven. For the most “authentic” tasting pizza, one really needs an oven that can hit 700, 800, or even 1000 degrees. The problem is that most home ovens max out at 550 degrees and I am not sure that spending a few thousand dollars on a wood-fired oven is really practical. I have come close by using a slight variation of Heston Blumenthal’s technique, but I know that a wood-fired oven would add so much flavor. So for now, I am going to concentrate on the dough.

Ingredients:

3 cups Antimo Caputo 00 flour
1 cup water at 105 degrees
2 1/4 teaspoons yeast
2 teaspoons kosher salt
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 teaspoon organic sugar

Application
Combine yeast, water and sugar at let it sit for about 15 minutes (or foamy).

In a Kitchen Aid, combine the flour, salt and olive oil. While using the dough hook attachment, slowly add the yeast, water, and sugar mixture to the dry ingredients. Mix until the dough forms a ball and knead for about 5-10 mins after.

Now, you can use the dough after an eight hour rise and it will be ok. It will be so much better than the national pizza chains. However, if you are seeking pizza dough love, 24 hours is the minimum time for the for your dough to mature. After testing the recipe for while, I have found that the complexity of the dough peaks at about 48-72 hours. Trust me, it is worth it