24 hour pizza dough, crispy recipe

I mean really, who can resist a light airy, crispy crunchy pizza crust? Anyone?

(Silence, other than the chirps of crickets and frogs.)

That’s what I thought. Here’s a pizza dough that takes 5 minutes to put together, and 24 hours to rest and relax. I mean COME ON, HOW EASY IS THAT!

Let’s say you have pizza on Saturday night, like every Saturday night… for over 30 years. Yes… that’s hardcore dedication people! 🙂

You gotta start the dough though (see what I did there) …. right after Friday night’s supper meal.

It all starts with this simple pizza dough recipe. And don’t forget to check out the video that is down past the photos!

Ingredients

• 2-1/2 cups of all purpose flour (regular bread flour will do)
• 1/2 Tablespoon table salt
• 1 teaspoon instant yeast
• 1 cup + 2 Tablespoons of room temp water 
• 1/2 Tablespoon of vegetable oil (or canola oil)

Directions

1. It’s Friday 5pm… begin by blending the dry ingredients in a deep bowl, around 10 L in size.
2. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients.
3. Use your hands or a wooden spoon and blend the ingredients until you have a shaggy dough and no more dry ingredients are at the bottom of the bowl.
4. Fold the shaggy mixture just a few times to bring the dough together in a loose lump of dough.
5. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and cover with a towel. Leave on the counter at room temperature (20-22ºC) until 2pm the next day.
6. It’s now Saturday 2pm. Your dough should be double or triple in size.
7. Sprinkle a bit of flour on your table and scrape the dough out of the bowl onto the floured surface. The dough will be very bubbly and not like a normal bread dough. For a dough this size you will want two pans about 9 inches in diameter, or 9×9 square. It will make a thick crust almost 1 inch thick. If you want a thinner crust divide into thirds and use three pans. Loosely shape each piece into a loose, round ball.
8. Coat your pans well in the same type oil you used in the dough. A tablespoon or more can be used.
9. Place a piece of dough in one of the oiled pans. Turn the dough over and swish it around to get the dough covered in oil. Now begin to press the dough from the centre out toward the edges of the pan. The dough will spring back some, so don’t be too concerned about the dough not staying where you want it to go. When you are done if the dough is 1/2 to 1 inch away from the edge, that’s ok.  Repeat for the remaining dough piece(s).
10. Cover the pans with plastic and a cloth and let rest for 2-1/2 to 3 hours. You can peek now and again but you will notice that the dough is rising again, making its way to the edge of the pans. If it doesn’t make it to the edge, its no big deal.
11. It’s 4pm now, time to turn on the oven as high as it will go. Generally that is 550ºF.
12. At 5pm it’s time to dress the pizza. Uncover the pans and if there are any big bubbles, prick them with a fork. 
    • Optional step: Get one hand under the edge of the dough and while gently holding it, lift part of it a little and slightly pull the dought towards the pan edge. Just know that the bubbly dough will collapse a little as you do this. It will recover some of that when it bakes in the oven.
13. Dress your pizzas however you want, then put them in the oven on the middle rack position. If you don’t have a middle location, just put the shelf in to the next lowest position.
14. Bake time is 12-15 minutes, you can even go a total of 18 minutes for a crispy bottom.
15. Take one out and check the bottom, if its not done you can leave it in the oven longer or place it on your stove top and cook it on high until you get the darkness you are wanting.
16. Enjoy!