Light, airy, chewy on the inside and deliciously crispy on the bottom. This perfectly describes these pizza crusts from fresh milled flour… it IS possible!
I’ve been making pizza dough from scratch for years, but when it came to switching to fresh-milled flour, I had a lot of fails… multiple dense and grainy crusts that my family was not a big fan of. It took a lot of trial and error when it came to recipe testing before finally landing on this delicious, airy, crispy pizza crust that my entire family enjoys! This recipe is a staple in our home and we make it on a weekly basis. “Pizza Friday!” This seems to be a favorite even among the picky eaters in my house.
What You’ll Need
Ankarsrum Mixer
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Ingredients
This recipe comes together with a few simple ingredients…
Hard White Wheat (You should always use hard wheat when you want dough that sticks together!)
Warm Water
Active Dry Yeast (instant yeast should work just as well in this recipe)
Honey or sugar
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Salt (Fine Himalayan Salt or Sea Salt)
Tips and Troubleshooting
Autolyse
When getting started with this recipe, something I almost always recommend for fresh milled recipes is doing an autolyse. Autolyse basically means mixing the flour and liquid first and letting the dough rest. This is important for fresh milled flour because it needs longer than all purpose flour to absorb the liquid. This resting period also gives the flour enough time for the bran to soften, which aids in gluten development thus hopefully speeding up the kneading process. For this recipe, that means mixing the freshly milled flour with warm water, and allowing it to rest, covered, for 20-30 minutes.
When you first mix the flour and water, it may seem overly sticky. Again, after the autolyse, it will appear slightly less sticky and even hold together slightly better.
Knead
After the autolyse period, next comes the kneading. This is when you add in the yeast and honey, salt and oil. I have never had a problem in any recipe adding the yeast right in to the recipe without first “blooming” or “activating” it.
I chose this order to add these ingredients (first yeast and honey mixed in, then salt and oil) so that the salt does not interfere with the yeast. Salt can interfere with yeasts ability to ferment and proof, so I always add it after the yeast is safely combined into the dough.
After all of the ingredients are combined, I let my Ankarsrum stand mixer to do the rest! I allow it to knead the dough for about 8-12 minutes. Throughout the kneading process, you should be able to see the dough getting smoother and smoother and start pulling away from the sides of the mixer bowl. This is the gluten developing, creating a more cohesive and tight dough! This is shown in the photo above. Note that the dough even after kneading WILL still be slightly tacky to the touch, but if you wet your hands and gently stretch a piece of the dough, it should be fairly elastic. This is a signal to you that it’s done kneading and ready for the next step.
The Rise (Proofing)
After the dough is done kneading, it is time for another rest! (For the dough, that is!)
Pro Tip: Oil your hands a little before picking the dough up out of your mixer bowl. That way the slightly sticky dough will not stick to your hands.
Form the dough into a ball and gently roll it in an oiled bowl (I typically just reuse my mixer bowl… less dishes) and cover tightly. Something I really love about my Ankarsrum mixer is that it comes with a lid that already fits perfectly so I don’t have to waste plastic wrap every time I want to cover my doughs. If you don’t have this, cover your bowl tightly with plastic wrap. This is important so that the dough does not dry out while resting.
Now this note is important!! The time you allow your dough to rest LARGELY depends on how warm your kitchen is! If your kitchen is cool, it will take longer to rise. If your kitchen is very warm like mine, it may rise rapidly! So if this is your first time making this recipe, I recommend keeping an eye on your dough to see how fast it is rising, and gauge your proofing time on that. My kitchen is typically pretty warm, so I let my dough rest for 30-45 minutes, and it’s done!
You’ll know your dough is done when it is nearly doubled in size. You can see how puffy mine got in the photo above. Pizza dough is fairly forgiving when it comes to underproofing/overproofing, so don’t worry too much about getting it exact.
Optional Fridge Proof
So this step is completely optional. At this point your dough has risen and IS ready to divide, shape, and bake. However, I almost ALWAYS make my dough early in the morning so I know that it will be ready to go come dinnertime. To stop the rising process and prevent the dough from overproofing, all I do is stick the dough in the fridge until I’m ready to use it later that day. You can either stick the whole bowl in the fridge as is, or you can divide your dough in two balls and tightly cover with plastic wrap. I have done both in the past and both turn out just fine!
When you’re ready to make dinner, just take your dough out of the fridge, divide if you haven’t already, and allow it to warm back up for about 30 minutes covered so that it’s easier to roll out.
Preheat The Oven
Ok, so this step seems very self-explanatory, but it’s more important than you might think. If you have a pizza stone (which I highly recommend investing in one if you make pizza on a regular basis like my family does), you NEED to preheat the stone in the oven as high as your oven will go (for me that is 525 degrees Fahrenheit!) for 45 minutes to an hour BEFORE making your pizzas!
Why is this important?
Your pizza will turn out the best when you have that oven and stone blazing hot before ever putting the pizza on it. This mimics a professional pizza oven and is a complete game-changer for at home pizza making. The blazing hot stone and oven quickly crisps the bottom of the crust and rises the dough fast. It also melts the cheese into that gooey goodness perfectly timed with the finishing of the crust.
I will link the pizza stone that I use in a different section of this post, but if you don’t want to invest in a nice stone, hopefully you have a cast iron pan you could use as well. You’ll want to preheat the cast iron in the oven at its highest heat just as you would a pizza stone for the same effect.
Shape and Bake!
Again, if you haven’t already, divide your dough in two. Shape into balls and cover to rest for another 10 minutes. Sometimes the dough will be difficult to roll out directly after shaping, but giving it this 10-15 minutes to rest allows for the gluten to relax, allowing for easier rolling. If you go to roll out your dough and it keeps springing back in toward the center and seems to resist stretching, give it another 5 minutes on the counter, come back, and try again after the dough has time to relax.
Once the dough is rolled into a 12″ circle, I gently lift the dough off the counter and put a layer of flour underneath. If you skip this step, you’ll have a difficult time getting your pizza peel under your pizza after the toppings are all on. Once the dough is on the floured surface, add whatever toppings you choose, quickly but gently slide that pizza peel underneath the dough, and quickly slide it onto your preheated pizza stone. With the floured counter, it should easily glide on and off the peel.
The first time I make pizza on the pizza stone, I did not add enough flour on the counter underneath the dough before adding my toppings, and it turned out an absolute MESS! That’s why it is so important to not skip this step!
With the blazing oven and stone, the pizza will start cooking as soon as it hits the stone. It only take my oven about 4 minutes total to bake a pizza. Use the same pizza peel to take your pizza out of the oven, and voila! A delicious, nutrition-packed pizza made with fresh milled flour!
Look how crispy the bottom of the crust is! Soooo good! And you can see how puffy the top got!
Want to make this dough ahead?
If you don’t plan on baking your pizza within 24 hours of preparing the dough, I recommend you tightly wrap the dough in plastic wrap, put it in a freezer bag, and freeze until you are ready to bake. You can do this after the dough has had time to proof/rise, and divide and shape into balls before wrapping and freezing.
You can either thaw frozen dough in the fridge for a day, or if you would like to use the dough right away, thaw the dough in a bowl of warm water. This rapidly speeds up the thaw process. It may seem a little wet if you thaw it the quick way, but just knead for a minute on a floured surface, and it’ll be good to go!
Pizza Toppings!
There is an unlimited amount of variations you can add to pizza as toppings. Here are a few ideas to get you started!
-The classic red sauce and shredded mozzerella cheese
-Sauteed pepper and onion blend
-Mushroom (my husband loves mushrooms on pizza, but make sure you cook them first so the water from the mushrooms don’t make your pizza soggy when baking)
-Pepperoni (another classic)
-Mediterranean artichoke and olives
-Buffalo chicken pizza for the spicy lovers
-My kids favorite: homemade pasta sauce for the base with shredded cheddar cheese on top
Seriously, the options are ENDLESS!
Recipe Printable!
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Fresh Milled Pizza Dough
Equipment
- Ankarsrum Stand Mixer
- Pizza Stone or Cast Iron
- Pizza Peel
- Rolling Pin
- Mill
Ingredients
- 360 g Hard White Wheat
- 260 g Warm Water
- 2 tsp Active Dry Yeast
- 1/2 Tbsp Honey
- 2 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 1 1/4 tsp Salt Pink Himalayan or Sea Salt
Instructions
- Mill the flour.
- Combine flour and water in a stand mixer.
- Allow the dough to rest for 20-30 minutes.
- Add the yeast and honey and mix until combined. Then add salt and oil.
- Once combined, knead the dough in the stand mixer for 8-12 minutes until smooth and elastic but still slightly tacky to the touch.
- Coat the dough in oil and place in a lightly oiled bowl, covered, until nearly doubled.
- Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 525 degrees Farenheit or as high as it will go with the pizza stone inside.
- Divide the dough in two, shape into balls, and cover to rest for another 10 minutes.
- Roll each ball into a 12" circle.
- Coat the surface underneath the dough with flour before adding toppings.
- Add your toppings of choice.
- Bake pizza in the oven until the crust is browned and your cheese is melted to your liking. This usually takes 4 minutes on my pizza stone.
- Take the pizza out, cool for a few minutes, slice, and enjoy!
Notes
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