All Purpose No Knead Roman-Style Pizza Crust Ideal For The Grill

Shhhhh. I'm gonna share a secret that could get me run outta town on a George Foreman Grill. I live in Chicago, and, even though I like deep dish, frankly, I prefer Roman style pizza. That's a thin crunchy chewy crust, not the thick bread-like crust so popular in this town, not that flaccid floppy crust they use to hold pepperoni in New York, and definitely not that light poofy pillow they put under their toppings in Naples. And it's a good thing, because the crust I like the most is easy to cook on the grill.

In this house, my wife is the baker, and a damn fine one. She has sure-fire hits from cookies to cakes to pies (click here for her all-purpose pie dough which we use for dessert pies as well as meat pies). I have always had a fear of flour that she is slowly kneading out of me. When I asked her to show me how she makes her pizza dough, I was shocked at how simple it is. There is no kneading and it freezes well. It can be used for thin crust or thick crust, and even for focaccia. It is called a short dough because it it was originally made with shortening, a solid fat, but the term has come to mean a dough that has any oil in it.

Her recipe was inspired by one of her go-to reference books, No Need to Knead: Handmade Italian Breads in 90 Minutes by Suzanne Dunaway. She usually makes enough for two 14" crusts, and we use one the next day and freeze the other.

A word about baking from a flour phobiac. Working with flour and baking is very different than working with meat and vegetables. While physics is the reigning science in cooking meat, chemistry dominates baking. Using too much of this or that, using the wrong kind of flour, not letting it rise long enough, rising it at the wrong temp, handling it too roughly, even looking at it cross-wise can alter the outcome significantly. Until you get the hang of it, I recommend you stick pretty closely to these instructions from my wife. But now that I've scared you, let me tell you that if you follow these simple instructions you will be well rewarded!

No Knead All-Purpose Roman-Style Pizza Crust Recipe

Makes. About 2 pounds of dough, enough for 2 thin crusts, about 14" diameter, or 1 thick crust
Serves. My wife and I cannot quite finish a whole 14" pizza
Takes. 2 minutes to make the dough, 1 to 2 hours to rise, 12 to 24 hours to rest, and 2 minutes to form the crust

Ingredients
1 teaspoon instant dried yeast
1 1/2 cups warm water, about body temp
4 1/2 cups all-purpose wheat flour
1 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons olive oil

Special equipment needed. Making dough is easier with a stand mixer or hand mixer. But it can be done by hand. You will also need a clean kitchen towel or T-shirt. If you have a big bowl with a lid, now's the time to use it. Otherwise a big mixing bowl, about 1 gallon capacity will do. You can cover it with plastic wrap.

About the yeast. Baking yeast comes in a variety of forms, instant, quick rising, etc. They all contain viable yeast cells that have been dehydrated. They lie dormant waiting for you to feed them. They can live in the fridge for a year or more, but the older they get the more of them die. So it is best to buy a small amount and keep it in a tight jar for no more than a year. My wife uses instant dried yeast. Fleischmann's makes a Pizza yeast, but it has other ingredients in it so we haven't tried it. The current recipe works great so we don't see the need to try it.

About the flour. There are all kinds of wheat flour out there: All purpose flour, bleached flour, bread flour, and cake flour among them. They are all slightly different in their composition and they cannot always be interchanged. Stick with all-purpose for this recipe.

Mix-ins. Don't do it. At least not the first few times. Resist the temptation to add garlic or herbs until you have mastered the process. Even then, keep it simple and authentic. Show your creativity on top of the crust, not in it.

Do this
1) Wake the yeast. Add the yeast to the warm water in a small bowl and stir. Let it sit for a minute or two until it is all dissolved. The warm water wakes the dormant yeast.

2) Make the dough. In a mixing bowl, stir together the salt and flour. Then add 6 tablespoons of oil, but not all of it, and stir it in. Then pour in the yeasty water and gently stir it in with the mixer on low. Resist the temptation to give 'er all she's got, Scottie, or you'll end up with flour in your face. It will not take long, about a minute, to mix it well enough. It does not have to be homogeneous, lumps are OK. That's it on the right.

3) First rise/fermentation. Dump the dough out of the bowl onto a clean table and with clean dry hands, work it gently into a ball. Clean the bowl and pour 1 tablespoon of oil into it and spread it all over all surfaces with your hands so it won't stick to the bowl.

4) Put the dough back in the bowl. There should be room enough in the bowl for it to more than double in size without peeking above the rim. Get a clean cloth or kitchen towel, make it thoroughly wet with warm water, then wring out most of the water. Cover the bowl with the towel, but make sure it is not touching the dough.

5) Turn the oven on high for one minute only, then turn it off. You are just trying to warm the oven to about 90°F so the yeast will grow. Now put the bowl covered with the towel in the oven and set a timer for 1 hour. Here's where the magic happens. As soon as the yeastie beasties got mixed into the dough, they began to chow down, producing carbon dioxide gas and alcohol. There's not a lot of alcohol, but there is enough CO2 to make the dough double in size in about an hour and smell like a brewery. That's the part I like.

6) Proof. You can make crust now if you are in a hurry, but 12 to 24 hours of aging, called proofing, really improves its flavor and browning on the bottom. My wife makes her dough the night before, transfers it to another bowl with a tight cover, then puts it in the fridge for tomorrow night's dinner. A good tight cover keeps the dough from drying out, so even a plate on the bowl will work. You can use plastic wrap, but believe it or not, that stuff allows air in and out.

7) Form the crust. After proofing, you can make your pizzas, or you leave it in the fridge for 3 to 5 days, but that's all. Some experts think that aging it for this long really improves the flavor and crumb (baker talk for texture). You can wrap it in plastic and then foil and freeze it. It's not quite as good after freezing, but it is still better than the stuff you get in the stores. My wife usually cuts it in half and uses one half for a 14" pizza for the two of us, and freezes the other half.

You can make one thick crust pizza if you wish, but I recommend that you start thin especially if you are cooking on the grill. Cover a 2' x 2' work surface with a light coat of powder and roll the dough into a round disk or push it out with your fingers. Try not to overwork the dough. For our 14" pan we roll it out to about 15 or 16". The dough is elastic and it will shrink back a bit. Just work it out trying to make it uniform thickness in the center. Beware of thin spots that might break or overcook. You may want to leave it a little thicker along the edge, making what we call a pizza bone. If you want to try spinning and throwing it, go for it. Just make sure the floor is clean.

8) Dress the pie. Now paint a thin layer of olive oil on top. This helps keep the wet ingredients from making the crust soggy. You are now ready to dress your pie. For a thin crust, it should go directly into the oven. For a poofier crust, let it sit around for up to an hour and the dough will rise a bit. You are now ready to dress the pizza.