WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
**In the video, Bridget calls for 2 teaspoons of sugar. The correct amount should be 2 tablespoons of sugar.**

With home ovens that reach only 500 degrees and dough that’s impossible to stretch...(more)

Makes two 13-inch pizzas
Our preferred brand of whole-milk mozzarella is Dragone. You can shape the second dough ball while the first pizza bakes, but don't top the pizza until right before you bake it. If you don't have a baking stone, bake the pizzas on an overturned and preheated rimmed baking sheet. It is important to use ice water in the dough to prevent overheating the dough while in the food processor. Semolina flour is ideal for dusting the peel; use it in place of bread flour if you have it. The sauce will yield more than needed in the recipe; extra sauce can be refrigerated for up to a week or frozen for up to a month.

NO MORE SNAP BACK
Dough that shrinks back when you roll it out is one of the pesky factors that keep a crust from ever baking up truly thin.

1. ADD JUST ENOUGH WATER Create a relatively wet—but not too wet—dough, which stretches without tearing and stays tender once baked.

2. PROOF IN FRIDGE Chill the dough in the refrigerator for at least 24 hours. This leads to less rise, a more flexible dough that holds its shape, and a thinner (and more flavorful) final crust.

3. DIVIDE Halve dough and shape into balls. Place on lightly oiled baking sheet and cover with oiled plastic wrap. Let rest 1 hour to allow dough to return to room temperature.

4. FLATTEN On well-floured surface and using fingertips, gently flatten dough into 8-inch disk, leaving outer edge slightly thicker than center to create a fatter "handle."

5. STRETCH With hands, stretch dough into 12-inch round, working along edges and giving dough quarter turns. Transfer to well-floured peel and stretch to 13-inch round.

TECHNIQUE
KEEPING INFLATION DOWN
The biggest factor contributing to a crust that turns out thick versus thin is the size of the air bubbles in the dough before it goes into the oven. The more the bubbles expand with carbon dioxide as the dough ferments (or “proofs”), the thicker the final crust. Could a longer rise in the refrigerator fix the problem?

EXPERIMENT

We made two batches of dough, leaving one to rise at room temperature for four hours and placing the other in the refrigerator for 24 hours, then baked them both according to our recipe.

RESULTS

The dough left to rise at room temperature produced a crust that puffed up like focaccia, while the dough that rose in the fridge baked up with smaller bubbles and boasted far more flavor.

EXPLANATION

Fermentation is a two-phase process: First, the carbohydrates in the dough are converted by the yeast to sugars, alcohol, and acids. Next, these convert to carbon dioxide, expanding the bubbles created in the dough when it was first mixed. At room temperature, the process moves rapidly to the production of carbon dioxide. But in the fridge, the process is slowed way down. With enough time, the complex-tasting sugars, alcohol, and acids form, but very little carbon dioxide gets converted, so the bubbles in the dough stay small and the crust bakes up both thin and more flavorful.

PUFFY AND BLAND

THIN AND FLAVORFUL

TECHNIQUE
SHRINK YOUR HEADROOM
Baking the pizza on the top rack—rather than the usual approach of placing it near the bottom of a home oven—means heat will hit the top of the pie, browning the toppings before the crust overcooks.