Leah's Favorite Pizza
Submitted by hwt2u
Homemade pizza with a crisp-bottomed, soft-interior crust made from a honey-yeast dough with cornmeal for crunch. A family-favorite recipe topped with tomato sauce, mozzarella, and Italian herbs.
YIELD
6 servingsPREP
20 minCOOK
20 minREADY
115 minA homemade pizza recipe built around a crust with character: cornmeal mixed into the flour gives a slight grainy bite and the kind of crisp bottom that pizzeria stones achieve. The honey in the yeast water feeds the yeast aggressively and adds a faint sweetness that balances the salt-and-sourdough flavor of properly fermented pizza dough.
The high-heat bake (450 to 500°F / 230 to 260°C) is what separates real pizza from sad supermarket dough. Home ovens that can’t get that hot still benefit from a pizza stone or perforated screen, which mimics commercial deck ovens by transferring intense heat directly to the bottom of the crust. The result is the textbook crisp-on-the-outside, spongy-and-airy-on-the-inside crust everyone wants.
Pro Tips
- Use bread flour, not all-purpose. The extra protein develops more gluten, which traps the gas the yeast produces and gives you airy, chewy crust.
- Make the dough the night before and cold-ferment in the fridge. Slow fermentation deepens flavor dramatically.
- Don’t overload toppings. Too much sauce or cheese makes a soggy crust no matter how good the dough is.
- Slide the pizza onto a pre-heated stone or screen using a peel dusted with semolina or cornmeal.
Variations
- Use this dough for calzones or stromboli by folding instead of topping flat.
- Add 1 teaspoon dried oregano or 2 tablespoons fresh chopped basil directly into the dough.
- Brush the rim with olive oil and sprinkle with sesame seeds before baking for a flavored crust edge.
Ingredients
Directions
This dough produces a crisp crust but spongy soft interior, a favorite of my daughter Leah.
I taught her how to make this and now she is a fine pizza maker! Dissolve yeast in warm water ( 115F degrees ) with honey until foamy.
Mix flour, salt, and cornmeal. Make a well in dry mixture and pour in foamy yeast.
Stir well with wooden spoon.
Add more flour ( or water ) gradually to form a soft pliable nonsticky dough.
Knead smooth and elastic on floured surface for about 5 to 8 minutes.
Cover dough in oiled bowl and let rise double in warm place.
Punch down and knead briefly.
Roll out with floured rolling pin to fit 12 to 14 inch round pizza pan or pizza screen.
form a rim of dough around edges of pizza.
Spread on desired sauce and seasonings and sprinkle with shredded or sliced mozarella cheese.
Bake 450F 20 to 30 minutes or until bottom crust is well browned and crisp.
Note: if you use a pizza screen place the screen directly over a pizza oven stone.
Make sure you oil the pizza screen well before placing on the dough!.
Note: you may let pizza dough cool rise in plastic ziplock bag overnight if not using immediately.
Note: for best pizza crust texture try to use a pizza oven stone, pizza screen or pizza pan that has holes in it.
Hight temps as 450 to 500 are also required and therefore use bread flour which is more appropriate for pizza baking.
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