The Dude's Pizza

Total Time: 24 hrs 5 mins Preparation Time: 24 hrs Cook Time: 5 mins

Ingredients

• 4 cups bread flour, plus more
• bread flour, for shaping
• 1 3/4 teaspoons instant yeast
• 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• olive oil
• 1 garlic clove
• kosher salt, for the crust rim
• mozzarella cheese
• pizza sauce or pasta sauce
• 3 leaves fresh basil, chopped

Recipe

• 1 mix all of the water, yeast, salt and sugar in a stand mixer with 2 cups of the bread flour and mix the ingredients for 1 or 2 minutes or until they have totally mixed and the dough looks like a batter. allow dough (batter) to sit covered with a towel for 20 minutes to autolyse.
• 2 once the 20 minutes are up add a dough hook onto the mixer and kneed for 5 minutes on med-low. this will not look like its doing much but it is agitating the hydrated flour and will help form gluten.
• 3 add in another cup of flour and kneed again for five minutes.
• 4 once the five miuntes are up check the dough if it is pulling away from the sides or has formed a ball on the hook your done, but if it is still clinging to the bowl slowly add the remaining cup of flour till it totally pulls away but is still a little sticky to the touch.
• 5 once it has formed a ball cover and let sit for another 20 minutes.
• 6 turn the dough out onto a lightly floured bench roll into 3 balls. you might have to dust the tops with flour because the dough will probably be sticky to the touch.
• 7 put the dough balls into a flat gallon zip top sprayed with no stick spray and leave in the refridgerator for at least 12 hours for up to 6 days but the longer the better. you can also freeze the dough for longterm storage.
• 8 baking.
• 9 when ready to bake let your refridgerated dough sit out on floured surface for at least 30 minutes.
• 10 place a pizza stone or unglazed quarry tile in the oven on the middle rack and preheat at 550 degrees for at least 45 minutes
• 11 take the pizza dough and press in about a half of an inch to form the lip then spread pizza dough on a very lightly floured peel or lipless cookie sheet into a 12 inch round.
• 12 before you add toppings make sure your pizza slides well on the peel if not, remove and lightly add more flour.
• 13 add a light layer of sauce and then add your toppings, basil, and lastly the cheese.
• 14 slide your pizza off the peel onto the stone and bake for 5 to 7 minutes depending on how crisp you like the crust.
• 15 remove from the oven and lest it sit on a cooling rack for 3 minutes to let the cheese set.
• 16 garlic crust topping *optional*.
• 17 in a small pan heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil with one smashed clove of garlic and cook until the garlic just starts to brown, then remove the clove and turn off the heat.
• 18 brush oil on baked pizza lip and sprinkle on a few flakes of kosher salt to taste.