It’s a hand stretched pizza which is gobsmacking. I first had one in Dehradun at a small eatery called Coco and was so impressed that I actually walked up to the chef to understand how could the pizza dough taste like that.
I am a pizza lover, wood-fired thin crust pizza lover to be exact and I must have had neopolitan Pizza earlier without realising what it was, but this was the first time I had such a delicious pizza base!
Anyway, coming back to my story – I was convinced that this guy will not tell me, after all if anyone could make pizza taste like that they would surely treasure it as a prized secret! But to my surprise, he actually explained, well partially. He took me through the process not the recipe. It took him 48 hours to make the dough, it was hand-stretched, tendered to with love and the perfect balance of ingredients.
I clearly knew then and there this is definitely going in my top dishes to try and simultaneously going in my too difficult to try. So, it was shelved till I found this guy on YouTube talking about hand-stretched pizza dough and that was my cue. 1 video led to another and 30 videos and 2 chefs later I’m sitting here, waiting for my yeast to arrive, as I type this post, so I can try my hand on the world’s most delicious pizza. I’m trying a 24 hour recipe with Poolish and keeping my fingers super crossed that it turns out great.
This is how the recipe goes. I’m jotting down ingredients for 1 pizza (starting off slow) and will write for 2/4 etc. if this is crazy delicious.
Ingredients:
100ml cold refrigerated water
2g dry yeast (which needs to be proofed, not instant yeast)
Pinch of honey
100ml ’00’ pizza dough
For the sauce: pesto or tomato
For the toppings: basil, Bell peppers, onion, mushroom, zucchini, broccoli, olives
Recipe:
Take cold water and add yeast and honey to it as you stir well. Add the dough to this and keep for 1 hour at room temperature in a deep dish shut airtight.
After this, keep in the fridge for 16 to 24 hours.
Take it out of the fridge and wait for 20 mins till it comes back to room temperature.
Knead the dough: Add 10ml cold water + 5g salt mixture and incorporate well with the Poolish. Add 60g flour and mix it well and then take it out on the counter. If it’s very sticky, add a little bit of flour. If still sticky after mixing well, add some olive oil and keep it under wraps for 15-20 mins.
After rubbing it with olive oil and giving it a nice soft round shape, keep it covered for 1-2 hours at room temperature.
After the rest, it will increase in size and then mix it with flour, just like we do in roti making process and stretch it with hands. First with fingers in the centre pushing it out and keeping crust outer ring bulky and then hold and stretch with right hand and stretch and pull with left hand which then goes to the right and back on the platform. Like art.
Top it up with toppings, seasoning and sauce and cheese.
Pre heat the oven at Max temperature for half to 1 hour and place the pizza inside for 5-10 minutes.
