Pizza Dough

The thing that I hate most when I'm making a pizza is the long waiting time for the dough to proof.  I must be out of my head when I decided  to try out this long proof dough, yep it takes about four hours!
Hate to say this but  the long proofing time is well worth the wait. The crust was so much softer and I really enjoyed it.

stage one
2 and 1/4 cups bread flour
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 and 1/4 teaspoons yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
1 and 1/2 cups warm water (not hot or boiling)


Stage two
2 cups bread flour
2 and 1/2 teaspoon salt

Make the crust:
I am using my good old bread maker to knead the dough. You may use your cake mixer with a hook attachment. Proof the yeast (mix the yeast with the sugar and water and leave it till it foams and bubbles.

In your mixing bowl mix the proofed yeast with the oil and flour. Use a wood stick if you are going to knead by hand cos it's gonna be a sticky dough. 

Cover in  a wet clean cloth and leave in a warm place till it doubles in size (this may take anywhere from 1 to 3 hours depending on the weather in that day). Mine doubled in 3 hours. (Malaysia)

Add the ingredients of stage two and knead the dough for 10 minutes. 
You will get an elastic smooth dough. Place it in a bowl and cover it in a warm place till it doubles in size. 

Punch it down and use it or divide into three parts and place in plastic bags and freeze or keep in the fridge. I decided to make one large square pizza.
 
Make the pizza:
Oil your pan and sprinkle it with some semolina.
On a floured surface roll out the dough then transfer it to the pan
With your fingers make dimples in the top leaving a 2 cm margin (these dimples insure that the dough wont rise too much )
Cover with a clean cloth and set aside.

For the filling 
Rub olive oil all over the dough.
I used my bolognese sauce to evenly spread all over my shaped dough leaving 2 cm bare border and the choice of your filling and sprinkle the mozzarella cheese. Don't forget to season with salt, pepper and dry herbs. 
Preheat the oven to 250 deg C.  Bake for 10 -15 min in the middle rack.

Enjoy...jue
 recipe for the crust taken from here