We’re changing things up a bit this week with this Pizza Dough. A simple, 6 ingredient dough with a hint of sweetness from the addition of honey, this dough rises into a beautifully soft and easy-to-work with base for any pizza. Add to that a recipe (or guideline, really) for a sweet and salty Pear & Prosciutto Pizza and you have a perfect, pleasing dinner recipe on your hands.
I’m pretty sure that I am on a mission to convert everyone I know into a white pizza lover. Don’t get me wrong, the regular combination of tomato sauce and cheese with some basil or oregano is a classic, and I love it, I do–especially when topped with some pepperoni, olives, and spinach. But I’m also a huge fan of a white pizza. Give me some olive oil and garlic on the base with a bit of fresh cheese and parmesan, or like with this Pear & Prosciutto Pizza, a nice, thin layer of cheese sauce over the crust to help pull all the flavors and toppings together. Plus, I feel like a white pizza just reheats better the next day.
The pear and honey bring sweetness to the table in this pizza, while the prosciutto adds a kick of saltiness. Then you have the creaminess of the Gruyere sauce (which starts with a béchamel as the base–I’ve never made a béchamel before this pizza–if I can do it, you surely can as well!) and the Burrata. The Burrata also adds a bit of tang to the flavor profile. Top it all with the peppery bite of arugula and some fresh pepper or the spicy kick of chili flakes, and you have a pizza that will get even the most uncertain Italian mother to go back for an extra slice (and ask for it to be made again! I consider that a win).
I kid you not, these pizza was almost gone before we could make another one. Despite all the toppings, there’s a lightness to it that makes it incredibly easy to eat.
But, like any good pizza, you’ve got nothing without the dough. My nephew always says that his father has the best pizza dough and I picked his brain while developing this recipe. He uses honey in his dough which adds a bit of sweetness to the base of the pizza as well. Not to mention, if you mix the honey with some water and use that to activate the yeast, your dough will be soft and pillowy and incredibly easy to work with. I took his base, combined it with what I remember of my mother’s dough, added a bit more oil, changed up the method a bit, and came out with this perfectly risen pizza dough that should provide a consistent texture every time.
It’s a staple recipe that doesn’t take many ingredients to pull together. Once you have, you’re ready to be making pizzas all the time. And while you’re at it, you may as well give this Pear & Prosciutto mix a go!
If you look at the recipe below, you’ll notice that this is my most flexible recipe to date. The amount of toppings you use depend on the size of your pizza–the pears should be sliced thin, the prosciutto torn into small pieces and folded into little mountains on the pizza, and the fresh cheese torn into strips or chunks to melt around the rest of the toppings. I add a bit of arugula before the pizza finishes cooking, then another small handful after for an extra bit of freshness.
And because this comes to mind anytime I think of pizza, I’m just going to leave this link here.
| Prep Time | 15 minutes |
| Cook Time | 10-15 minutes |
| Passive Time | 1.5-2 hours |
| Servings |
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- 3 cups all purpose flour (heaping scoops straight from the bag--550 grams--plus extra dusting)
- 1 1/2 cups warm water (360 mL, divided into 1/2 cup and 1 cup)
- 3 Tbsp honey (45 mL)
- 4 tsp active dry yeast
- 1 tsp salt
- 3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil (45 mL)
- 2 Tbsp butter unsalted
- 2 Tbsp all purpose flour
- 1 1/4 cup whole milk warm
- 1 cup Gruyere cheese grated
- 1/4 tsp garlic powder
- salt & pepper to taste
- olive oil to prep the pan
- corn meal to prep the pan
- 1/2 Bartlett pear
- 3 slices Prosciutto di Parma sliced thin
- 1/2 ball Burrata or fresh mozzarella, drained
- 2 handfuls arugula
- honey to drizzle
- black pepper to taste
- chili flakes to taste, optional
Ingredients
Pizza Dough
Pear & Prosciutto Pizza
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- In the bowl of a stand mixer, or in a large bowl, measure out the flour. Set aside.
- In a small saucepan, stir together 1/2 cup of water and 3 Tbsp honey. Heat until 110°F or until warm to the touch. Stir to dissolve the honey. Remove from the heat and pour the water into a liquid measuring cup. Stir in 4 tsp of active dry yeast. Allow to sit 10 minutes for the yeast to activate.
- Make a well in the center of the flour and pour in the activated yeast. Add 3 Tbsp of olive oil and the salt. Using an electric mixture fitted with a dough hook, mix the dough on low--it should be shaggy and dry. Slowly begin to add the remaining 1 cup of water until the dough begins to pull away from the side of the bowl and you're left with a slightly sticky dough--you may not need to use all of the water. If you don't have, or don't want to use, a mixer, you can also mix the dough by hand, slowly adding water until you're left with a sticky, combined dough.
- Sprinkle the dough with a little bit of flour and allow to rest for 10 minutes. After the 10 minutes has passed. Dump the dough out on a lightly floured work surface and knead for 1-2 minutes until you have a smooth dough that you can form into a ball. Lightly oil a large bowl and place the ball of dough in the bowl to rise. Score the top of the dough then cover the bowl with a lightly greased piece of plastic wrap and a clean towel. Allow to rise in a warm area for 1.5-2 hours until doubled in size.
- Once risen, knock the air out of the dough. Cut off a piece of dough, about 1/3 of the size, and roll or stretch to the desired size and thickness before topping.
- WHILE THE DOUGH IS RISING, MAKE THE GRUYERE SAUCE: In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt 2 Tbsp of butter. Stir in 2 Tbsp of flour and stir until the flour is cooked out and you have a thick paste. Slowly add in the warm whole milk a little at a time, stirring or whisking until the paste has thinned and you have a thick sauce. Continue to add in the milk a little at a time, stirring as you go. Stir until the sauce begins to thicken. Add in the grated Gruyere, garlic powder, and salt and pepper. Continue to heat and stir until the sauce is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon--if you were to run a finger through the coated spoon, the sauce should not drip into the empty space. Pour the sauce into a small bowl and cover with plastic wrap so that the wrap touches the surface of the cheese sauce--this helps keep a skin from forming. Set aside.
- Preheat the oven to 450°F. Lightly grease a round pizza pan or a large sheet pan with olive oil and sprinkle with corn meal. Grab 1/3 of the dough--or more or less depending on your preferred size of pizza--and stretch or roll to your desired size of pie. The outer edges/crust should be a bit thicker than the middle, but be careful not to tear the dough (if you do, you can always add a little piece to cover the rip). If you're not forming the dough to your prepared pan, transfer it to the pan and reshape as needed.
- Spread 2-4 spoons of Gruyere sauce over the dough, ending just before the edge of the crust. Add thin slices of Bartlett pear (I use about 1/2 a medium-large pear) and distribute evenly around the pizza. Tear the slices of prosciutto and add them to the pizza in small mounds, distributing evenly around the pear. Repeat with the drained Burrata or fresh mozzarella. Drizzle with olive oil.
- Bake on the bottom rack of the oven for 10-12 minutes (depending on the size and thickness of your pizza, you may need to check it earlier--I usually make mine at least 10 inches across and stretch the dough fairly thin in the center). The fresh cheese should be melted, the pears should be softened, and the prosciutto should be a bit crispy. Carefully lift the bottom of the pizza to check for doneness. Once the bottom is a light golden brown, add a small handful of arugula to the top and transfer the pizza to the middle rack of the oven. Cook for an additional 2 minutes.
- Remove the pizza from the oven and add another small handful of arugula. Drizzle with honey and sprinkle with ground black pepper and chili flakes if desired. Slice and serve!
* The amount of pear/prosciutto/cheese/arugula that you use depends on the size of your pizza. Don't go too overboard because the pear and cheese do release some water and you don't want a soggy pizza. I try to distribute the toppings so that you get a bit of everything on every slice but nothing overlaps until you add the arugula at the end.