Instructions

Pizza Dough Prep:

1. Measure water then adds to dry yeast and sugar. Mix it. When you are using active dry yeast or yeast for pizza you do not have to activate it, but I like to dissolve it in the cup of water anyway.
2. Measure the flour and add salt then mix it together. Place all the dry ingredients in the work bowl of your stand mixer.
3. Pour water with yeast and sugar in the flour.
4. Add the bowl on the mixer and attach the dough hook and turn the mixer to do the job of kneading.
5. Mix until the dough just comes together, forming a ball and pulling away from the sides of the bowl. Increase the mixer speed to medium and knead for about 5 minutes.
6. Place dough in a lightly greased bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and allow it to rise once. Knead with hand then refrigerate for at least 6 hours to up to 24 hours.
7. Remove dough to counter and punch down into a rough rectangle shape then tightly roll into a log 10 to 12 inches in length. You can use 1 extra-large pizza or two regular size pizzas. If you are making two then separate into two. Measure and cover.
8. Flatten dough into a disk, then shape it into a smooth ball by folding the edges of the round in toward the centre several times and rolling it between your hands on the counter.
9. Cover (each) dough ball with a clean cotton towel and allow to rest for about 30 minutes.

Baking time:

1. Heat oven (pizza stone inside on lower rack) to 450 degrees Fahrenheit or use your regular pizza baking pan, no pan pre-heating required. Give the oven about 20 to heat up.
2. When you’re ready to build the pizzas, sprinkle a couple of teaspoons of flour on a board or your countertop and place the dough right in the middle.
3. Pound the dough into a disk with your hands, then pick it up and pull it through your fingers to create the outer lip.
4. At this point, you need to start stretching the dough. The most-efficient way to do this is to spin the dough so that the weight of the outer lip stretches the dough by moving dough away from a centre with a bit of force.
5. You can also stretch the dough on the board by turning and pulling it, and turning and pulling. Shake the peel from time to time to make sure the dough doesn’t stick.
6. Brush the lip with oil, then dress the pizza with olive oil and tomato sauce.

Topping:

1. Shred your own mozzarella block, and add pepperoni.
2. Stretch pizza over your baking pan or slide OR the hot pizza stone if you are using it.
3. Bake pizza for the first 10 minutes, depending on your oven. If you are baking it on the pizza stone bake for about 7 minutes. Keep an eye on the pizza.
4. Rip apart burrata with your hands, then pull the pizza out for a few seconds.
5. Evenly add burrata all over the pizza, then add a few tablespoons of basil pesto. You can add more or less just spread a bit everywhere.
6. Place pizza back in the oven and bake for an additional 3 to 4 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly. We should not add burrata right away on the pizza because it will produce too much moisture while baking so we going to add on the end.
7. Slide pizza your cutting board. Let it rest for a couple of minutes before slicing with a pizza cutter.
8. While the pizza is cooling, slice cheery tomatoes and add on the pizza just before serving with a drizzle of olive oil and some fresh basil if desired.