How to Make Pizza Dough from A16

The Marina classic establishment. Known as a staple on Chestnut street, A16 has some of the better Italian food in the area. They focus on Neapolitan style pizzas, gutsy slow cooked meat dishes, and handpicked wines. If you have not had the chance to dine here, it’s a great spot and highly recommend.

Pizza should be fun. Which is why I wanted to show you how to make a high caliber dough recipe, and then leave the rest of the Za up to your imagination. This recipe yields 4 dough balls.

One thing to keep in mind with this recipe, like most of the ones I review, take a good amount of time. You need at least 24 hours for this one since this needs to sit overnight. Start on this the night before you are looking to make pizzas.

Let’s get to work.

Cookbook – A16 – Food + Wine

Ingredients:

Active Dry Yeast – 1/4 teaspoon
Warm water – 100 to 105 degrees – 1 1/2 cups
Extra virgin olive oil – 2 teaspoons
Salt – 2 teaspoons
00 flour – 4 cups

Step 1 – Activate Yeast

In a small bowl, sprinkle the yeast over the warm water and let proof for 10 minutes, feel free to quickly mix it in. After 10 minutes, stir in the olive oil and salt.

Step 2 – Mix and Punch

Fit a mixer with a dough hook, combine the flour and yeast mixture and mix together on low for about two minutes. The dough should be shaggy and most of the water has been absorbed. Knead on medium/low speed for another 10 minutes, dough should pull away from the sides of the bowl and be smoother. Cover the bowl with a towel and let rest for 5 minutes. Uncover and knead for an additional 10 minutes. Grab a large bowl, lightly coat with olive oil, and place the ball in, cover with plastic wrap, and let sit in the refrigerator over night.

The next day, take the dough out, punch it down, fold the sides over and turn the dough over in the bowl. Recover and refrigerate for another 4+ hours.

Step 3 – Prep and

When preparing, take the dough out, cut into 4 pieces, and form into balls on a floured work surface. Let proof for at least 2 hours, cover with a damp kitchen towel. If you start to see a skin forming on the dough, use a spray bottle to spray the surface and get rid of the skin. The skin will prevent the rough from rising properly and will make it really hard to stretch out.

The start shaping, place the ball on a flours work surface, place your palm in the center and start widening the disk. Continue to stretch until the dough is about 10-12 inches.

Congrats, this is the step in making an amazing pie. With these types of pizzas, turn your oven up to as hot as it can go, usually 500-550 F to cook. I usually have a pizza stone pre heating with the oven, and wait a little longer when the over has reached it’s temperature to put the pizza in.

And for the ratings –

Difficulty of ingredients – 3/5 stars – probably a normal trip to the store
Perceived difficulty going into recipe – 2/5 stars – It’s dough, once you make it a few times, it becomes second nature
Difficulty after recipe – 2/5 stars – You got this
Time taken – 5/5 stars – More than 4 hours – it’s an over night recipe, but you are rewarded
Taste – 4.5/5 stars – A great dough to be making your pizza with
Make again – 5/5 stars – yeah we only do fresh pizza dough around here now