Dave's Pizza Crust Recipe

(Note from C.C.: This post is from CrossEyedDave.)

Eureka! I think I found something close! & it's not beer, or eggs, or baking powder. The actual secret ingredient is... (well it's unbelievable.)

As you know, I was looking for a fast way to make NY Style pizza in the woods. One of my favorites are potato hamburger buns because they are so soft. With that in mind I looked up the recipe, but boiling & ricing potatoes was a pain. So I took a shortcut,,, ready for this?


1 packet fast rise yeast

3/4 cup 2% milk (sorry, DW will not allow whole milk in the house.)

The recipe called for shortening, but I didn't have any, so 1 tbsp butter.

2 cups AP Flour

1 cup Idahoan instant mashed potato flakes.


(I know, stay with me now...)

1 tsp sugar to pre-activate the yeast + 1 tsp salt to slow it down.


So I activated the yeast in warm milk & sugar, added it to the dry ingredients in the mixer, but it was too dry, so I added 1/2 cup water,,,, & it was too wet. So I added 1 TBSP flour, & viola! It pulled away from the bowl in a perfect (if sticky) dough.

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Notes:

This is still a work in progress,  I tried making deep dish Chicago style with the remaining dough & I thought it was terrible.

I think it is to much potato, but I would keep it at at 1 cup & just try to work in more flour. (up to 3 cups flour, more or less pending your locations humidity) This would make a less sticky dough, & make it easier to knead which is necessary to create gluten.


Don't forget to knead the dough at least 5 minutes b/4 shaping into a round.  (rolling pin works fine unless you can spin it in the air!)


For a thick crust, you must make two rounds, put one on top of the other, & allow to rise 20-30 minutes before adding toppings.

A pizza stone in the oven makes a huge difference in texture.


This recipe will yield 2 loaves of bread, or 2 thick (doubled) personal pizzas, or 4 thin personal pizzas.

Experiment!

instead of AP flour, try bread flour, or whole wheat mixtures for different textures.


instead of butter, try olive oil, or shortening, or nothing at all.


instead of milk, try water, or beer, (mmm, Guinness! I can't wait to try that one!) or even chicken soup!

(Who knows what it will taste like until you try it)

Also, raise liquid from 3/4 cup  to 1-1/2 cups if you increase flour to 3 cups.. but its a crapshoot  pending your temperature & humidity. the best thing is just to add more liquid if it gets too dry, & more flour if its too wet.

Rule of thumb is its ready when it pulls away from the bowl, but you can still add a lot more flour at this point.


Bon appetit!

CrossEyedDave