American Pizza, Big Pizza Dough

Ingredients for 6 servings:

• 1,100 g flour
• 20 g fresh yeast
• 25 g salt
• 1 dash of olive oil
• 880 ml milk, lukewarm
• 2 small cans of tomatoes, chopped
• 3 m.-sized onion(s)
• 4 garlic cloves
• some olive oil
• some sugar
• salt and pepper

Instructions

Working time approx. 30 minutes; Rest time approx. 1 hour; Cooking/baking time approx. 20 minutes; Total time approx. 1 hour 50 minutes

wonderfully airy, light and soft pizza dough for American pizza with delicious pizza sauce

With this simple dough, the pizza base will be beautifully high, airy, soft, and light. Preheat the oven thoroughly to 250°C. If your oven can withstand more heat, set the temperature even higher. First, mix 400g of flour (regular flour is perfectly fine) with 400ml of lukewarm milk. Add 10g of yeast (it’s best to mix it with the milk beforehand) and knead the dough for a good 5 minutes. The dough will still be very sticky, but that’s how it should be. Cover the dough and let it rise for about 30 minutes. Then add 700g of flour, 25g of salt, 480ml of lukewarm milk, and 10g of yeast to the first dough and knead thoroughly again. It’s important to add a generous splash of olive oil to the dough and continue kneading. Cover the dough and let it rise again for 30 minutes. The dough will have a rather moist, soft consistency (unlike “normal” pizza dough). In the meantime, you can prepare the pizza sauce (you can use any pizza sauce, of course, but I highly recommend this one – it’s simple and delicious). Slice the onions into really thin strips and finely chop the garlic. Lightly sauté the onions in a little olive oil in a pan. Briefly (really briefly) roast the garlic and then add the chopped tomatoes. Sprinkle with a little sugar and season with salt and pepper. Let everything simmer gently for about 5 minutes. Now grease a baking sheet (or, if you have them, round pizza pans) generously with olive oil (best done with your fingers) and roll the dough into shape. Don’t roll it out, just stretch it out and leave it about the thickness of your little finger. Let the crust rise on the sheet for a few minutes and then spread the pizza sauce on the dough. Don’t add any cheese or toppings to the pizza yet! Just spread the sauce on it and place it in the oven. Bake the pizza for 10 minutes at 250°C (480°F) top/bottom heat. After 10 minutes, top the pizza as desired and sprinkle with cheese (I use 400g of cheese for this amount of dough, such as Gouda, Emmental, or mozzarella, depending on your taste). Bake the pizza for another 10 minutes and enjoy.