NO-KNEAD CRUSTY EUROPEAN BREAD and pizza crust This recipe creates a dough which is allowed to rise in a food-grade container with a small vent (a drilled hole is fine) in the lid until it falls on its own, at which point it is put into the refrigerator and used as needed over the next two weeks. Master recipe: Dough: Lukewarm water, 800 grams (3.5 cups). Can substitute 1/3 cu (70 gr) olive oil for 1/3 c (70 gr) water. Yeast: 10 grams (1 T) Salt: 17-25 grams (1-1.5 T) Unbleached all purpose flour: 1080 grams (7.5 c) Tomato topping: 85 grams (1/3 cup) Mozzarella: 85 grams, 3 oz 100F water and a warm room = 2 hour first rise. Add yeast and salt to water/oil in a 5-quart food container. Mix in all the flour. Kneading is unnecessary. You are done when everything is uniformly moistened, and the dought will be loose enough to conform to the shape of its container. Allow to rise at room temp until it begins to flatten on the top. 2 - N hours, depending on temperature. Do NOT punch down the dough! That gas will prevent pizzas and flatbreads from being dense. Refrigerate (for atleast 3 hours, preferably overnight) and use over the next 14 days. The dough will develop sourdough characteristics over that time, and the fully refrigerated dough will prove less sticky than dough at room temp. Bleached flour has less protein than unbleached and absorbs less water; don't substitute. Bread flour can be used but it will need more water (1/4 - 1/2 c per 3/5 cups water) and will be chewier (American style) and less tender (Italian style). Pizza: Pizza sauce: diced, crushed or pureed tomatoes; drain extra liquid from diced or crushed. Add pesto as desired. Or top with snips of fresh basil: roll several leaves into a cylinder and slice across. Can be added before or after baking. Dried oregano is a better alternative to dried basil. Cheese: small chunks melt slowly, allowing the crust around them to crisp before being covered with cheese. The firmer the cheese, the smaller the chunk. Mozzarella is considered a medium soft cheese: 1/2 chunks. Feta: crumble. Hard cheese: grate coursely. Pizza dough can be rolled out then frozen. It will keep for three weeks. They are baked, unthawed. Mozzarella: fresh is delicious but moist. Use sparingly. Commercial is fine. Blue cheese. Swiss cheeses: Emmenthaler, Gruyere, Jarlsberg, supermarket Swiss. Provolone. Aged cheddar with tomato and Italian flavors. Soft cheese, including ricotta: whole milk is less moist. Won't brown much. Crumble rather than attempt to grate or cube. A ball of dough is cut off and then rolled out to desired thickness (8 oz dough rolled 1/4 inch thick for Neapolitan; 16 oz dough rolled 1/4 inch thick for American; 2 lb ball for Sicilian extra thick 1/2 inch style 3/4 inch thick for Focaccia.). If you plan on a thicker crust or a lot of toppings, A 'docker' is used to puncture the crust before it is cooked WITHOUT toppings for about five minutes, with the cook puncturing any pita-bread-puffs with a barbeque fork as needed. Then add toppings and complete baking. Preheat oven and stone/ pan. 30 minutes is a good compromise between good pizza and energy conservation, especially in the winter. When ready to cook: Prepare and measure toppings in advance. The faster the dough gets into the oven, the less it will stick. Preheat oven at highest temperature with pizza stone / bake pan in the bottom third of the oven. Sprinkle surface of refrigerated dough with flour and then pullu and cut off a 1/2 lb (orange size) piece of dough with serrated knife or kitchen shears. Hold the dough in your hands and add a little more flour as needed so it won't stick to hands. Gently stretch the surface of the dough around to the bottom on all four sides, rotatin the dough 1/4 turn as you go to form a dough. Let the dusting flour fall off as it will. (20-30 seconds). Roll out and stretch the pizza crust: I do this on a piece of floured cooking parchment paper the size of my baking pan, so I know how to shape it. Your crust will be about 1/8 inch thick. Move the crust to a peel and add sauce and cheese. Drizzle a bit of oil oil if desired. Slide the peel into the preheated oven and shake / move the pizza onto the preheated pan. Check for doneness in 8-10 minutes. The general proportions of ingredients: 1/2 cup water : 1 c flour : 1/2 t salt : scant 1/8 - 1/2 t baking yeast The lower amount of yeast will yield a slower rising bread, The higher amount of yeast will yield a faster-rising bread, I have used as little as 1.5 c of water and as much as 3 c. I have substituted 1/2 of the flour with high-gluten whole wheat flour with success. I have substituted 1/3 of the flour with rye flour. Slower rise: 1 t (15 - 18 hours.) I have (in a cold kitchen) allowed the rise to go for 20 hours. Bread making: Pour a very thin line of olive oil around the entire edge of the dough. With your spatula, push the dough away from the sides and into a soft ball. Tilt the bowl a bit so the ball rolls. Roll the dough around until it is completely covered with oil and has deflated. Cover again and let rise 90 minutes. It should double in size. Turn the oven on and set to 450 F. Oil a large cast-iron pot or Dutch oven with a lid (I use an 8-qt Dutch oven). Put it (and the lid) into the oven for 20 minutes to preheat. Remove pot from oven. Oil the ball of DOUGH with olive oil. Sprinkle the pot bottom with corn meal. With your spatula, flip the ball of dough into the pre-heated pot. PUT THE LID ON. Cook at 450 F for 30 minutes. Remove lid and cook for another ten minutes. Run a knife around the edges, remove from pot and cool on rack for at least five minutes. Semolina Dough: wonderful for pizza. Reduce water to 3 c (680 gr), unbleached flour to 3.25 cu (455 gr) and add 3 c (510 gr) durum (semolina) flour