Little Caesars Pizza Dough


Little Caesars Pizza Dough
http://savoryseasonings.blogspot.com/

1 1/4 cups (9.7 oz) warm water (appox. 120° F)
2 3/4 tsp. dry active yeast
2 TBSP sugar
1 TBSP Honey
1 TBSP Olive Oil
2 Tsp. Salt
1 1/2 cups (8 oz.) bread flour or all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups (8 oz.) whole wheat flour (optional, can use 100% bread flour or all purpose flour)

Mix water and yeast in mixing bowl and allow it to proof for 5 minutes. Mix in sugar, honey and oil. Then mix in 1 cup flour and the salt. Continue mixing in all the remaining flour until you get a nice, soft dough. Knead until dough is soft and smooth (approx. 10 minutes).

Finish kneading on a lightly floured surface and shape into a ball. Place in the refrigerator in a covered container coated with olive oil for overnight. For the perfect flavor, it is best to time making the dough 24 hours before baking the pizza's (for pizza Saturday at 5pm, make your dough Friday at 5pm). If you are short on time you can sacrifice some flavor and make this dough first thing in the morning and place it in the fridge until dinner that evening.

3 hours before baking: Remove from fridge and either divide dough in half for two 12” pizzas or leave whole for one somewhat thicker 16” pizza. Work each piece of dough into balls. Allow the dough to come back to room temperature (this process generally takes 3 hours).

45 minutes before baking: With your pizza stone on the bottom rack of your oven, preheat your oven to 475° F to allow the stone to get hot enough (this process generally takes 40-50 minutes).

15 minutes before baking: Shape dough into desired pizza crust, sprinkle pizza peel, wooden cutting board or upside down cookie sheet with corn meal, flour or rice flour. Place pizza crust on top, then add toppings. Gently slide pizza onto the hot pizza stone and bake for 9-11 minutes.

*****
I’ve spent some time on the Pizzamaking forum where there are several dozen amazing chef’s who have dedicated an extraordinary amount of time perfecting pizza making at home. Some of their doughs take up to 7 days to make with a huge focus on temperature control and top quality ingredients. They are inspiring!

This recipe is from their site but is simple to use, forgiving and only takes a day to make without sacrificing on the flavor. It was designed to mimic the flavor of Little Caesars pizza using the same processing time as the restaurant along with the same cornerstone ingredients.

After trying this recipe, we no longer crave takeout pizza- this is SO much better (at least we think so)! Yeah!!!

I think the two secrets to great homemade pizza are finding the right dough and baking it on a hot stone (Fibrament sells a great stone with an outstanding reputation and a 10 year warranty against cracking). The benefit of baking it on a hot stone is it duplicates the professional brick ovens. The ceramic stone creates a light crispy crust by absorbing excess moisture and distributing the heat evenly and efficiently. The results are night and day compared to baking a pizza on a cookie sheet or cold stone. Give it a try, you’ll love it!

Thanks to Randy at the Pizzamaking forum for providing this excellent recipe!

This recipe also makes fantastic breadsticks to go along with your pizza. Roll dough into strips, then place on a greased baking sheet. Brush with olive oil, top with herbs or cheese. Bake at 425 F for 12-15 minutes.

Link for a red pizza sauce.
Link for a garlic buttery pizza sauce.

17 comments:

Gidget Girl Reading said...

oh my gosh thanks for visiting my blog! I love your blog i have 3 pages of recipes i'm trying of yours! the homemade refried beans sounds so yummy!!! :)

I loved the compbo of bread flour and whole wheat but the girls not so much:( i think if i do 1/2 cup whole wheat and slowly add more and more each time i make it we can get back to the original recipe!

thanks for all your great recipes!

Annette W. said...

I made your this dough this morning! I first heard about it from Baby Center...was that you or someone else...and then again from the Teachign My Little Bookworm just yesterday I think. We're having company tonight and I plan to serve pizza!

I made a double batch all at once. I had to add a lot of extra flour (1 1/2 cups!) so the dough wouldn't be sticky...or maybe I counted wrong and it was just an extra half cup. Anyway...I'm really excited for it tonight!

Emily said...

Glad to hear you made the pizza dough recipe, let me know what you think.

As far as measuring flour goes, everyone scoops differently. I personally am a very light scooper so every recipe I get from someone else I end up adding just a little more. My neighbor is a very heavy scooper and always needs to add less flour than a recipe calls for. Because everyone is so different with measuring, it's nice to weigh flour to get it exact.

The pizza recipe calls for 16 oz. of flour which in a perfect world would be 3 cups of flour. You were right to do it by touch, the dough should be slightly sticky just like a bread dough.

I'm sure you will love the end result tonight. Enjoy! Emily

Annette W. said...

So last night's pizza doesn't tell me how great of a recipe it is! One pizza was very well done...the other not so much. We really need to get a pizza stone! I know that will make a good difference. But really, it seemed pretty good...definitely better than the other two I've tried!

Annette W. said...

I've tried the recipe once again. This time with the stone and cornmeal. It was very good, but I struggled to slide the pizza from teh backside of a cookie sheet to the hot stone.

We do have a pizza peel...but it was not helpful in any way.

Any suggestions?

Emily said...

Hi Annette,

Glad you enjoyed the recipe! Using a pizza peel can be tricky at first for everyone. Make sure your dough isn’t too sticky, then work quickly to prepare your pizza. Use plenty of cornmeal on your peel, then give it a good firm shake back and forth to get the pizza loose. Then slide the pizza onto the stone.

I have heard of other people using paper parchment to keep the pizza from sticking to the cookie sheet or peel but haven’t needed to try the parchment myself. Hope this helps! Emily

Melanie said...

Emily, I have been using this recipe ever since you posted it and I LOVE it. I'm posting about it tomorrow on my blog with a link to your blog. Hope you don't mind!

Emily said...

Hi Melanie, I'm thrilled to hear you enjoy the pizza dough. Yes, of course feel free to post it on your blog. Enjoy! (p.s. I love your heart shaped pastry shells! I've never thought of making them a heart shape and love the idea.)

Shannon said...

I came here from Mel's kitchen cafe and I love this pizza dough and now I am interested to try more recipes from your site. I try to avoid processed just because we feel better and it tastes way better! Thanks for sharing!

Courtney said...

Oh My Goodness.

I was having a party for Halloween this year and was trying to make bread sticks but the sit I was on didn't even give a recipe so I surfed around and came across your recipe. It worked REALLY well for the bread sticks and was a huge success (I think I ate half of them by myself =)
And now I am making it into a bread loaf. It tastes really good. I know there are different recipes for different kinds of baking but there is just something so tasty and delicious about this recipe!

And to boot the house smells Amazing!

~Courtney~

Emily said...

Hi Courtney, thanks for stopping by. I'm SO glad to hear how well your bread sticks turned out for your Halloween party. You'll have to try it for a pizza sometime. I'd love to hear how it turns out for for a bread loaf. Happy baking!

Holly said...

So, I'm so in love with L. Ceasar's dough flavored butter/garlic breadsticks. :) It's always nice to catch a taste of bread between the sopping wet fingers. I can eat a whole bag by myself. Anyway, would this dough replicate those breadsticks or just make some alternatively good ones? Any suggestions on making the buttery/garlic/or parm. seasing that goes on them?

Bonnie said...

I cant believe i stumbled upon your web site!!! It seems you have been on the journey i just began 3 years ago when my baby was diagnosed with Soy allergy and it turns out alot of the "problems" i was having are also from processed foods. You have found ALOT of the things I have been searching for like good granola bars, breads and cheese crackers et... and i am so very thankful that you share your information (i think you just fastforwarded me a good 3 or so years on my journey!!) you see i am NOT a good cook BUT i am LEARNING to be a good recipe follower. Anyhow my question is.. when i put my pizza dough onto the stone am i supposed to put it back in the 475* oven? or turn the temperature down or off while i am cooking it? Once again thank you so very much for all the awesome information!!!!

Emily said...

Hi Bonnie, thank you for your sweet post, you are too kind. My daughter has an intolerance to soy as well.

I was in the same boat as you, not a good cook but I learned to be a good recipe follower. Then once you understand how recipes work, it becomes easy to create your own recipes. Keep it up, it sounds like you are doing a great job.

For the pizza, yes you put the dough on the hot stone, then continue to cook the pizza at 475 F. It's the high heat and hot stone that give you the soft crust in the middle and the crunch on the bottom like a pizza chain. Give it a try, it really is good. Good luck! Emily

Maria said...

Have you ever tried freezing this dough for later use?

Anonymous said...

My daughter and I have life-threatening food allergies: her to peanuts and me to peanuts, tree nuts, soy, and most raw fruits and vegetables...and a few other things. We've been forced to learn to cook this way, but once we did it, we learned how healthy it is! We can't eat in restaurants anymore, so we just take food with us. What's surprising is how many people are having to change their diets and avoid processed food, for one reason or the other. It's good to know others out there are doing this, and I love your recipes. Maybe someday soon I'll post some of my own.

Emily said...

Thank you for your kind post. I'm so thrilled to hear my recipe collection has been helpful to you. I would love to see some of your own recipes!

My DD is currently allergic or intolerant to dairy, soy, eggs and gluten. My heart goes out to another "allergic family." Happy cooking. :)