Sicilian-style pizza
Units
Temperature
Servings
Ingredients
Dough
- 540 g strong bread flour rounded
- 395 ml lukewarm water rounded
- 12 g fine salt rounded
- 6 g instant yeast rounded
For the pan
- 35 g olive oil, for the bottom and sides of the pan rounded
Method
Method
- Mix the flour, water, salt, and yeast until shaggy. Rest for 15 minutes, then knead for 6 to 8 minutes until the very soft dough is smooth and stretches without tearing. The dough weighs about 955 g.
- Cover and ferment at room temperature for 1 hour. For deeper flavour, refrigerate for 12 to 24 hours after that rise, then let the dough stand covered for 45 minutes before panning.
- Put all 35 g olive oil into a dark 33 x 46 cm metal pan and coat the bottom and sides. Transfer in the dough, turn it once in the oil, and press it partway toward the corners. Rest for 15 minutes whenever it resists, then continue until the pan is filled.
- Cover and give the dough a 1 1/2 to 2 hour pan proof, longer if it is still cool. It must be well-proofed: visibly thick, airy, softly wobbling, and marked by bubbles beneath the surface.
- Heat the home oven to 230°C with a rack in the lower third. Parbake the bare dough for 9 to 11 minutes, until set and only just beginning to colour.
- Use the topping selector below for exact quantities, assembly order, and before-bake and after-bake steps. Keep wet ingredients within the selected preset’s stated Sicilian capacity so the airy crumb stays open. Apply any before-bake ingredients gently without pressing out the proofed dough.
- Return the pan to the lower rack for 14 to 18 minutes, rotating once. Follow the selector for finishing ingredients. If the top needs more colour after the base is crisp, move it higher for the final 2 minutes.
- Rest for 5 minutes, loosen the edges, and move the pizza to a rack so steam cannot soften the oil-fried base. Cut only after another 5 minutes.
Notes
- Baker’s percentages: strong bread flour 100%, water 73.5%, salt 2.2%, and instant yeast 1.1%. The exact dough weight is 955 g for one 33 x 46 cm pan.
- This is deliberately thick and well-proofed, with a soft, bread-like crumb. It is not Grandma pizza, which uses less dough for the same large-pan footprint and receives a much shorter pan proof.
- The oil is part of the cooking method, not merely a release coating. Contact between the dough, oil, dark metal, and low oven heat creates the crisp oil-fried base.
- The topping selector supplies the complete topping load and timing. This page owns only the thick Sicilian dough, its pan proof, and the two-stage home-oven bake.
- A home oven cannot reproduce a commercial deck oven’s floor heat. A dark metal pan on the lower rack, a full preheat, and prompt transfer to a rack are the practical substitutes.
- Dense crumb means the pan proof ended too soon. A pale or soft bottom means the pan was too light, the rack too high, or the pizza remained in the pan after baking.
- Refrigerate cooled slices in a sealed container for up to 3 days. Reheat at 220°C on a rack or directly on a preheated tray until the crumb is hot and the base is crisp again.