The Lazy Genius Podcast - #104 - The Lazy Genius Makes Pizza (Part 1)

Episode Date: April 15, 2019

The only thing that comes close to Change Your Life Chicken in emails and DMs on Instagram is Pizza Fridays. Anytime I post my meal plan for #ItsMealPlanMonday and it says Pizza Friday, I get a ton of DMs asking for my favorite pizza recipe, my favorite pizza stone, my favorite sauce. . .you get the point. Well guys, I’ve done my research, compiled the facts, and now, I’m ready to share everything I know about pizza with you! This week, we’ll talk all things pizza dough. Next week, we’ll talk about sauce and toppings and cooking techniques and everything else. Stuff Mentioned First things first, don’t let your pizza (or any of your food related plans) suffer from House Hunters Syndrome. My favorite book to learn all the pizza things from is The Elements of Pizza by Ken Forkish. I’ve linked my go to recipes for each dough I mention in this episode here: Neapolitan (crispy and chewy), New York (thicker and more common), Sicilian (thickest, square, and deep dish). Once you get to the kneading and rolling out phase, you may want to consider using a bench scraper to make clean up a breeze. But if you only want to add one new thing to your kitchen and you don’t have a digital scale, get yourself a digital scale. It’s really the only way to go when it comes to weighing ingredients like flour. Download a transcript of this episode! This podcast is hosted by Kendra Adachi and executive produced by Kendra Adachi, Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hi everyone. You are listening to the lazy genius podcast. I am Kendra Adachi and I am here to help you be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't. Today is a highly anticipated episode. Episode 104, The Lazy Genius makes pizza. It is here. And there's so much to say that this is part one. I started to put together this episode and it was like a little more word. I'm still talking. So we're going to have this. the two separate episodes. If you follow me on Instagram at The Lacey Genius, you have probably seen my weekly meal plans. I do that every Monday on Meal Plan Monday. And almost every Friday, written in the Friday part of my meal plan, it says Pizza Friday. And anytime it says pizza Friday,

I get a ton of DMs asking for my favorite pizza dough recipe. I actually did a story once where I put up that question box thing and I asked for your questions about pizza and pizza dough, and there were so many. I answered some on Instagram, and you can actually see those in my pizza highlight, which are those, the highlights are those like circles on any profile page that are above the photos. And so you can go and click on the piece of pizza and you can see some of those questions that are answered.

But I'm going to answer a lot of questions here in this episode. And today we're focusing on dough, the science of dough, how to make it. how to plan out the timing a little bit. But there is a lot. There's a lot about dough. It's not as simple as a basic recipe. Next week we're going to talk about sauce and toppings and cooking techniques and baking stones and all the other stuff.

First thing, though, a word. 90% of the time, I'd say 90% we have pizza on Fridays. It is 90% of the time homemade. Now, and that's just because I love it. I love homemade pizza. I love making it. If I didn't love it, we wouldn't do it. And that rule should exist for you too. If you don't love making homemade pizza, don't do it. Or maybe you have people in your family that love eating homemade pizza and that's why you make it. In that case, I think that that's lovely that you're like doing something kind and loving to your people by doing something that you

don't love in order to bring them some joy. And hopefully in this episode, you'll get some tips that will kind of help make that experience better if you do continue to have it. But I just want to give you permission. Like, you as a human are not required to make homemade pizza. Like, you don't have to. Next week, we'll talk about cheats of, like, how to make pizza in your own oven that maybe you didn't make all of the components of it or whatever.

But today we're talking about, today we're talking about dough. And so if you want to, if you want to dive in. into this, you guys. This is going to be a journey. Come with me. I am certainly not an expert in making pizza, but I have made it dozens and dozens of times. Anything that you do a lot of, it puts you at some level of expertise. But I will always be learning and I will always have questions. And that is the thing that has been shocking to me about the world of pizza though. There's a world. there's a world of pizza dough. There's so much to learn. It's just bonkers. Luckily, I have a friend who he makes pizza more often than I do. And so I will usually like, I will ask him my questions.

And I want to be that for you. I want to be that person for you. Because here is the thing. Making pizza dough, it has a lot of nuance. So much. The most common question I get about pizza, for sure, is what is your favorite dough recipe? And to me, it feels like an impossible question. In fact, When I went through the questions left on Instagram on that question thing, some of you asked how to get crispy crust that wasn't chewy. Some of you asked how to get a chewy crust. Others wanted a thicker doughy crust. And guess what?

All of you used the word basic. You were like, what's like a basic? I just want like a basic crispy crust. Or I just want like we all like our baseline is different. Everybody's got a different baseline. And then the funny thing is the one thing that was like pretty uniform across the board. with your dough was you don't want it to take all day. I hate to be the bearer of bad news,

but dough by its very nature, it kind of takes all day. Not always, not the whole day, but like it takes some time. And the amount of time it takes in combination with the ratio of the ingredients that we're working with, which we'll talk about in a second,

it affects the texture and the timing of the pizza itself. pizza is not like a single, it is a category, you know, like when we think about food, we're like pizza is a category, but pizza dough, it's not like a single entry in that category because no single dough recipe is going to satisfy every pizza eater. You guys all want different things and are calling it basic. So our first step in making dough is recognizing what you want out of it. You need to know your expectations about the dough, about the timing, about all of it. And it could be, it could be that you're expecting too much. You want healthy pizza that tastes like the real thing. You want like delicious, flavorful, chewy dough that doesn't have to rise for a couple of

days. It's just not a thing. You want the experience of making pizza, but you don't want it to take too long. So I think you could be, potentially, you could be waiting for a pizza unicorn to appear, but we might need to let it go. And I get it. Oh my gosh, we do this so much. Not just with pizza. We do this with a lot of food, with our stuff. I wrote a post a while ago called When Your, What was it called? When Your Meal Plan has House Hunters Syndrome? You've watched House Hunters, right? The couple wants at least four bedrooms, three baths, an open concept living area, a big kitchen for entertaining, a two-car garage and a yard, but their budget is $12.

We have to make concessions in places. And when it comes to pizza, you cannot have a completely start-to-finish full homemade pizza experience without investing some time. There are definite shortcuts that we will talk about, but you have to expect several hours of time, if not way more. It is very little hands-on, like so much of that time is hands-off. but you do have to plan ahead a little, which you can do. And again, we will talk about as many time-saving tips as I can, especially in the episode next week. Okay, but for right now,

let's figure out our pizza dough expectations, all right? I want to talk about three kinds of pizza that you might be looking for. This will help you narrow your search. There are so many styles of dough, but knowing what you want, you're going to know what to look for. Okay. So those three kinds are Neapolitan, New York, and Sicilian. I keep going to say Secile, like the name, Sicilian, Sicilian, which is kind of like deep dish. Well, you know, you can call it either one. I should probably call it deep dish, so I don't keep stumbling over Sicilian. Okay, let's start with Neapolitan. Neapolitan pizza, it is crispy, it is thin, the crust is charred, even like black in places, like really puffy and bubbly and it's got a really good chew. Like you have to really use your teeth. Neapolitan dough is the

kind that you see in those crazy hot pizza ovens for like three minutes, you know, where they puff and they get black in places and it's magical like on the food network. So that's the first style. That's what Neapolitan pizza is. The second style is New York style. New York style crust is not crispy. It's a little bit doughy and it's super tender. It's not thin crust, but it is thinner. And it's the kind that you have to fold. because the crust just isn't going to hold up to you're holding it flat. Okay? The third kind is Sicilian or deep dish. It is thick, it is soft, it is usually super crunchy on the outside, kind of fatty.

So knowing which kind of pizza you prefer, it will really help you as we talk about doze, especially because the length of time that these three doves need to rise and ferment is pretty different. Okay, so let's start with the Neapolitan. A Neapolitan dough is called a lean dough, which means it doesn't have any sugar or fat in it. It is the most basic recipe you can get, flour, yeast, salt, and water. That's it. None of those things have a lot of flavor until they are allowed to hang out and become friends for a long time, also known as the fermentation. period. Neapolitan dough, it needs a long rise, usually in the fridge, usually cold for 24 to 72 hours. And in that time, the flour, it hydrates, like it soaks up all the water, the gluten develops over time, and the dough it kind of ages a little bit, which gives it a really, really good flavor. Because it doesn't have naturally flavorful things in it already. Salt, as we've talked about, it brings out the natural flavors of other things, but, like,

like you can bring out the flavor or just flour. You know what I mean? Like you need, that's why bread dough has to rise because the flavor comes from like the chemical reactions that are happening from the fermentation and the dough. Which, you know, it's so fun. All this science.

I hope it's fun for you. Oh my gosh. I can nerd out about this stuff so much. I have an episode about baking bread. The Lazy Genius Bakes Bread too. So there's that where I go into some of this a little bit more. But there are a couple of important things that you want to remember. remember about this style of dough. First, it doesn't really get needed. If kneading dough weirds you

out or it feels like too much work, this could be a fantastic style of dough for you to try. Because the purpose of needing is to develop the gluten in a dough. The gluten is, the more the gluten is developed, the more structure there is. It's stronger. So it might be chewier or crispier. The end result is. this is why if you were to mix a muffin batter within an inch of its life, your muffins would be tough as rocks because you developed the gluten and thus the structure way too much. But pizza dough, especially in the Apollitan pizza dough, which by definition is supposed to be really chewy and sturdy, it needs a lot of gluten development. You don't get that by needing it forever.

you get it by letting it hang out and ferment and get tasty. And because it's a lean dough and doesn't have fatter sugar, it is not as tender, okay, because it's crispy. Fat and sugar make things tender. That's why cakes and cookies have such a delicate structure, right? Because the ratio of flour to the like tenderizing fats and sugars is super high compared to pizza dough. Well, I guess it's not high. Like the ratio of fat to that stuff is like really, really high compared to pizza dough.

There's so much more of it. Or compared to like a sourdough loaf or something. So you're not going to put two cups or two sticks of butter in a pizza dough. That's not going to work very well. Okay, so let's recap. So to recap Neapolitan, it is a basic recipe with only four ingredients, one of which is water. It does not require much needing at all, but it does require time. at least a full day, up to three, and the resulting texture is crispy, chewy, and charred.

You do have to cook it at the highest temperature you can, but we will talk about the actual baking process in the next episode. Okay, the second style of dough is New York style. It's not super crisp. It's a little bit thicker, and it's probably the most common dough you get at pizza takeout places. When I say thicker, I don't mean like super thick, but it's not like crispy thin crust. It's kind of like, it's like a middle of the road pizza.

Now, there is a difference in like a good New York style pizza dough and like Papa Johns. But in terms of your expectations, that regular style, like that's what that is. Now, we already talked about what makes doughs tender, right? Fat and sugar or fat, you can't have the fat without the sugar, but a lot of them have both. Since this dough definitely has a softer texture and a less crispy crust, it has fat and possibly sugar in it. it's also a kneaded dough which means the gluten can develop faster than a slow rise like the neapolitan you also get more flavor and you don't need as many hours to develop the flavor of the dough because of the fat and the sugar does that make sense they help with the flavor they

flower and sugar give things flavor so that you don't have to rely on several days of to develop that flavor. You get it like real quick in one punch, but the dough can't sit to develop gluten. You have to work it to develop the gluten. Okay. Most New York style does are meant to be cooked the day you make them. So to recap that one, it's chewy. It is not, it's not crispy, right? It's kind of your middle of the road pizza. It has to be needed. It does not need as much time to rise, maybe a couple of hours. And it pretty much needs to be cooked the same day for the most part. And the third kind, Sicilian. It is thick.

It is crispy on the bottom. Kind of like pan pizza. Except that, traditionally, Sicilian pizza is cooked as a square or like a rectangle. You make a really not lean dough. This dough has definite fat and sugar in it. And it has a higher ratio of water to flour. So it is a really sticky dough. It's really loose.

Like if you try to need it to get it until, like, like a tight ball that's not going to stick to your hands. It will not work. That is not going to work. You can even put the dough in the pan and it just sort of like, it almost just like spreads on its own, like slime. That was, that was probably the wrong comparison. I'm sorry for that, but here we are. So how you cook it is you put that dough on a baking sheet that, or like in a cast iron skelet or something, that the bottom is covered in olive oil, like the bottom of the sheet or the pan. You put the dough in, you know, another things, and then you bake the pizza, and the crust is, like, doughy and thick. I mean, it's cooked.

It's not, like, raw, but it's soft and doughy and thick. But on the bottom, it's, like, basically fried, so it's really crunchy. Pizza Hut pan pizza is the closest, like, mainstream example of the texture I'm talking about. It's just way better. Even though, don't get me wrong, I love me a pan supreme from Pizza Hut. That is a magical pizza. Okay. So in terms of beginning with dough in this episode, we, um,

I want to start with Sicilian for you. Like if you were a beginner, all right, in listening to this episode, you're like, hmm, I really want to make pizza dough, but it seems kind of complicated. Sicilian is a really great place to start. Not the problem, but it's the least traditional in that it's not even a circle, usually, you know, and it might not really fit your expectations of what it means for you to make homemade pizza in terms of like maybe the flavor and the texture.

if you want something thin and crispy, that is not this, right? It's also a really easy dough to make, which could be fantastic for you, you know? It's like a lot more user-friendly and forgiving than, like, Neapolitan dough. And you might love that. That might be like the most beautiful message to hear that you can get some sort of homemade pizza that doesn't take forever. Or that message might be like, oh, I wanted to like spend some time, you know, like, but that helps you see your expectations for for pizza you know like you realize that you have neapolitan expectations with only sicilian time and that is why when you guys ask me for my favorite basic dough recipe there just isn't one pizza is two different dough has so many personalities by only changing the ratio of ingredients because it's

all the same thing like it uses all the same ingredients except for like maybe adding like the olive oil and the sugar sometimes to the already very basic flour salt water and yeast but no what you are after and what you're willing to compromise on is super, super important. Aw isn't something we need to travel for. It's something waiting for us in everyday life, whether in a city street or a moment with a work of art. I'm Dr. Keltner, host of the Science of Happiness podcast. Join me for Cities of Aw, a special series on how our public spaces can spark awe, wonder, and enhance the quality of public life. You can find us wherever you your podcasts.

Okay, so here's the little story. So my friend Michael, who makes pizza, he's my pizza guru. He makes pizza more often than I do, and he's way better out of than I am. In fact, my Ben, my Ben, my Ben, I'll be like, how's a pizza tonight, bud? And he's like, it's good. It's not as good as Mr. Michaels. That's good. All right.

I'm still learning. It's fine. But he had, my friend Michael, he had the idea. It was over a year ago when we were both like really nerding out of repeat. pizza to have like a big pizza dough taste test. And because we both like really enjoy learning the difference in doughs and maybe you do too and this is like super fun. Like we started to only bake from cookbooks that are focused on pizza and not just

getting like random pizza recipes from places. So kind of wanting to learn from like pizza masters and understand how this whole dough thing really works. So he and I made a couple of different doughs each to be able to compare the different side by side. So he made a Neapolitan dough. Remember, that's the really lean one that takes a long time. And he made another dough similar, but it was made with something called a poolish, which is basically like a bread starter for pizza, and it gives it like a ton of fermented flavor. And then I made a more like New York style dough from a pizza book I had just gotten. And I made the dough that I've always

made my family up until that point, the Pioneer Woman's Pizza Doe. Now hear me. A lot of you love that recipe. We did too for a long time. It is good. but when you taste pizza next to other kinds of pizza and you get to compare right away, you'll be shocked. It's bonkers. The same thing happened a while back. I did a chocolate chip cookie taste testing. I really like to do taste testing parties.

I made nine different recipes, or maybe it was 12. I can't remember of chocolate chip cookies. I invited like a ton of people over. We tried cookies. And the funny thing is the cookies, there were cookies that tasted great on their own. Like if you're just having a chocolate chip cookie, you're like, oh, this is delicious. and then they were shockingly gross next to supremely better tasting cookies.

It was so weird. But you wouldn't know that eating it on its own. And that is what happened to me with pizza dough that night. Michael's dough was shockingly more delicious. To the point, I became like such a student of pizza dough. And I started to see the differences in doughs that are fermented for a couple of days versus those that rise for just an hour versus those that like hardly have any salt or they have a ton of oil or not at all.

I mean, it was kind of intense if you can't tell. Now, you might be like, Kendra, oh my gosh, I don't care as much as you do. Just give me a dang recipe. I will. And if you find one or already have one that's good enough and you like just fine, it works for you. Stick with it, man. Don't fix it if it ain't broke. But you are not missing out on some magical pizza dough recipe that everyone else seems to know and use.

and you're just like making mediocre pizza at home, there isn't a master recipe because pizza is just too different. You're waiting for something that doesn't exist. But if you're happy with what you have, stick with it for sure. Now, I will put some recipes absolutely in the show notes that are labeled very clearly for what they are and what you'll get out of them. But you can stop there. But I get the sense from so many of your questions that you really want a delicious pizza,

not just a delicious pizza, but a delicious pizza experience. And you aren't satisfied with what you have right now. And it could be that you have expectations that are too high, or it could be that you're not giving yourself enough time to actually enjoy what it is you want to enjoy. Understanding something as silly as pizza dough, it can actually help direct you in creating your own homemade pizza night that fits not just your schedule,

but your expectations of the process, of the flavor, of the texture, of the ease. and here is the ironic little formula. Almost always, the doughs that are the least hands-on and the easiest in the sense of not having to babysit the dough or need it a lot or bloom the yeast and water, any of that, they are the ones that have to sit for a day or three days. The quicker you want your dough, the more attention you have to give it. You have to need it to get the gluten developed. You have to add more ingredients to get the flavor that you're losing by not fermenting the dough for a long time. And you are almost certainly not going to get a super thin crispy crust

because that dough needs so much gluten development and no fat. Otherwise, it tears. And that's why it needs to ferment and sit in a big bowl for a couple of days. So that's why I say all these words about expectations. I just sensed a great mood of discontentment in those pizza questions. You guys are really frustrated that this isn't easier. But I think it's because you don't want to, or you don't know what to focus on. You don't know what you want out of it. You know kind of what you want out of it, but you don't see that some of those things are conflicting.

And so I think it's just really helpful to know like, okay, what really matters about this? And how can I focus on this? Okay. I, again, I'm going to put some recommended recipe links in the show notes. It's not all like, I'm not trying to like pizza shame anybody. This is not like a philosophical sermon, even though it might feel like it a little bit.

But I do want to talk a little bit more about some other stuff that can help inform how you make dough with any recipe. Okay, so first, the more hydrated the dough, or the more water there is in comparison to the flour, the easier the dough will stretch generally, okay? But here's what happens, because a lot of you are like, I can't get my pizza to stretch out. Here's what happens. We get really scared of wet sticky doughs. You think that every dough has to be dry and not stick to your hands. And so you add more flour. as you need it to get it to that place. And all that does is make your pizza tough and it's not going to stretch out. The ratios in dough are really specific and particular because even an extra

tablespoon of water, it changes everything. It changes the texture. I mean, it's crazy. So a lot of you were sharing your complaints about having tough dough. I am guessing it's because there's too much flour. Possibly because the wet dough is freaking you out and you keep adding more to make the doughball smooth. Don't do that. Don't do that. Use a bent. scraper that's like my favorite tool ever to move the dough around so it's not on your hands as much you can use two bench scrapers sometimes I'll do that you can oil your counter instead of flowering it because that little little bit of fat it will have way less impact than a lot of extra flour will on your dough also your dough could be tough because of how much how you measure your flour this is where I tell

you to invest in a digital kitchen scale I love my scale so much. Doe is so simple in its ingredient list. And the same two people could measure out two cups of flour and be off of each other's measurements by like an ounce, which is a lot when it comes to flour. And so because those recipes are really simple, you really need to use the right amount of flour. So I use a scale when I bake to be precise. With some baking, it's more forgiving to measure rather than to weigh. But with pizza, you will benefit from the difference since there are so few ingredients to play around with. So don't add flour to need to get that ball super dry. And then consider measuring with a scale instead of a measuring cup so that your amount of flour is on point.

What about the type of flour? We're going to stick with all purpose and bread flour in this little conversation because they are the most accessible. You can buy double zero flour online that a lot of pizza professionals use, but let's just stay with these two familiar options for now. Bread flour has more gluten in it. So it's going to give you more structure. I always use bread flour for my pizza because it's kind of like a leg up. If you use all-purpose flour, you'll be fine. Nothing's going to burst into flames, but just know that the structure of your dough is at a disadvantage if you want it to be really sturdy because all-purpose flour isn't a strong flower. Like, you know when you watch the Great Bridge baking show and Paul talks about strong flour,

means bread flour. It's literally stronger than all-purpose flour. I highly recommend keeping some in your pantry, so you will have a better chance to get the dough you're after when you're making homemade pizza. Let's also touch on mixing dough. It's different depending on the recipe. Some recipes you just dump in everything. Some you have to put the yeast in warm water and let it bloom. Let's actually park there for a second. Blooming is essentially hydrating the yeast. It's waking it up like kind of aggressively, like literally throwing water in its face to wake it up. In terms of temperature, it needs to be warm enough for a bath, but not really a bath you'd want to take. Like it's warm, but it's not inviting. It's lukewarm. Now, I use a digital probe thermometer to check the temperature because you want it

around 100 degrees, but that temperature is like just a little warm. It's not a temperature you'd want to soak in. And when you're waiting for yeast to activate in bloom, don't look for bubbles. Don't look for bubbles. It's more like beach foam. It's like gentle beach foam. It's not a crazy bubbling science experiment. Now, if the yeast part of the dough, that whole thing, it just freaks you out the most, choose a recipe where the yeast doesn't have to bloom.

Just dump it in. Now, generally speaking, active yeast has to be bloomed in water because otherwise it's just really, really hard to wake up. It's like a hungover teenager. It's hopeless. Instant yeast or rapid rise yeast is easier to wake up. so it's the kind of yeast that's usually in recipes where you can dump everything in and start the yeast will wake up along with everything else and um also you cannot just substitute active

for instant or the other way around evenly i mean you can but the results just will be ideal active yeast oddly it has a higher quantity of inactive yeast cells in it than instant yeast does and so you will always need more active yeast by measurement or by weight than instant if you're doing substitutions about it's like 25% more so the active has to be bloomed first usually and and you need a little bit more of it if you're doing any subbing and yeast is scary too because it's like literally alive it's a living organism so you can kill it you kill it by putting it in water that's too hot like a like a bath you'd want to get into you kill it by putting it in direct contact with salt salt and yeast need a mediator they are not good

communicators with each other on their own and yeast might be dead check the expiration date on your package because yeast like all living things dies that got really dark and a little philosophical but it is true so that's like a little primer on yeast okay let's get back to the mixing depending on the type of pizza dough and the kind of yeast that it uses, whether it's active or instant, the mixing is going to vary across the board. You could mix it until it's like just combined and then let it sit forever. You could mix it with a dough hook or even like a paddle attachment on your mixer. You might have to mix it more by needing it for a long time with like your hands. There are really so many ways. There are different recipes that call for different things.

and there's definitely not just one way, not one way that works for every recipe for reasons we have already said because there's just so much nuance and how everything interacts with each other. It really is science, it's like fun, delicious science. Okay. Now let's talk about freezing dough. So many questions about that. Can I freeze dough? Can I freeze? Yes. You absolutely can freeze pizza dough and it is fantastic. Almost certainly in any recipe you make, go through the entire process until you are ready to make the pizza and then freeze the dough then. Let it ferment and complete its rises and all of that in the regular recipe and then wrap it up. I have used plastic crap before, like just directly on the pizza dough ball and kind of, you know, wrap it up in plastic. I've also put the dough in plastic

Ziploc bags before. Both are fine. Right now, I have six balls of dough on my freezer. Each ball is in a Ziplock, like a smaller Ziploc bag, and then all six of those small bags are in like a big gallon freezer bag, which protects them from freezer burn and also keeps them together in the freezer. And then to thaw them, you just put the bag of dough or the plastic wrap of dough into a sink of water. And if the, you could even put, there are some piece of people who like put the actual dough unwrapped in a bowl of water. Like it's, some people say it's even gentler. I've never tried it before because I've just always done it this way, but like I could see how it would be. Now your dough balls, they need to be completely thawed because if you try to stretch and shape them

when they are cold, oh, it is so hard. Cold dough is like really stubborn and stingy in it like finding shapes. So definitely warm it up a little on your counter like an hour or so before you want to make it. If it's coming from the fridge and from the free, it needs to be like completely thawed but not cold still needs to be room time okay now next week we are going to talk about like getting the pizza on and off the pan and the paddle and um what cheese to use what sauce and topping options to have what kind of pans um some time saver tips but i want to wrap up with one quick time saver as it relates to dough if you want pizza right now don't try and find a right now dough recipe. It is not a thing. We have established this. Your pizza will be

gross. But you have a couple of options. Number one, you can buy dough already made from a grocery store or even like a local pizza place. Most places will absolutely sell you a ball of dough. Then just take it home and make pizza. Done. Another quick option is using flat bread or non-bread. It won't have the same flavor or texture, obviously, but you're going to get something. adjacent to pizza in like less than 20 minutes. We make non-pisa often. I buy the big packs at Costco and they're great. Now it is a different experience for sure, but it's fast. It's so fast and it tastes good. Okay, that was so many words about dough. Are you kidding? I mean, this could have been two episodes. We still have a normal one coming. There's so much about pizza. But I hope you now see why

that I can't just answer. Like, what's your favorite? What's the best basic recipe? It is just not a thing. And it's not because I'm a weirdo. I mean, I am a little bit of a weirdo, even about pizza, I suppose. But the actual science behind creating dough structure that you want, it doesn't support a crispy, chewy, thick, thin, flavorful, and ready-in-an-hour dough recipe. I wish it did. Actually, you know what?

I actually don't. And maybe this is a really good way to close. I have grown to love the process of making homemade pizza. I think about what kind we want to have that week, and I might need to make the dough a couple days before. I might try a new one now that I understand the basics of how the ingredients work together. I use the magic question a lot for Pizza Friday. The magic question is, what can I do now to make dinner easier later?

So I'll make sauce the day before. I will pull out some like if I'm browning sausage for like a pasta dish, I will pull some out and save it to put on top of the pizzas later. I'll grate up cheese and put it in a bag. We can talk about cheese next week. And I kind of love that we can only cook one pizza at a time on our one pizza stone. Even when people are over, we still cook one pizza at a time. I like that it's slow and fun and an experience.

I think if I had a magic pizza dough recipe, I would lose all of that. And I don't really want to. I can find that quick fix in other places. I don't know if I want to find it in pizza. So naming what you want out of your own pizza night is really important. I have named that for me. And so what we do really works for us.

It might not work the same for you because you want something different out of it. And that's okay. But it's important to know what you want so you can know what to look for. And I think that I've probably said enough. today. Oh my gosh. Check the show notes for some dough recipes. Next week we'll mail down some other stuff. I so appreciate you listening. And until next time, be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't. I'm Kendra. We'll talk more about pizza next week. You ever felt like you were living just a B or B plus life? It's so dangerous to live that.

More dangerous than a B minus or a C plus life? Because when you're living a B or B plus life, you don't change it. You think it's good enough. Is it? I'm super. I host a podcast called Becoming You. People think, okay, an A-plus life is not available to me, but there is a way. We are all in the process of becoming ourselves. Listen to Becoming You, wherever you get your podcasts.