Pour Me a Martini Pizza

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I realize we’re not officially in summer, but it’s here at our house. The kids have been out of school for several weeks and it’s a revelation. The lightness and joy that has descended upon our home is nothing short of bliss. Pure, peaceful, bliss. We’re going to bed late and sleeping in. We’re eating quesadillas, playing legos in the living room and laying outside in the sun to catch some rays. There’s lots of fresh fruit in small little green baskets begging to be noshed. Day trips are being had, vacations are planned and lunch by the beach because we can. Tuition has ceased. Club sports have paused. Drama has taken a back seat. I’m in heaven.

Periodically I have to push the realization that this peace is fleeting and school will start up again and lunches will need to be made and homework will need to be done. I’d like to set up a plan so that next year isn’t as stressful. I’d like to streamline the operation. I’d love tips if anyone has some? I frequently dream of a kid Uber starting here. I have the whole business imagined, if anyone is looking for a  career change. Anyone?

Pizza is Gavin’s favorite meal. Towards the end of the school year I really tried to start planning out our weekly meals because they were getting sad. I would spend the day cooking and concocting and driving people around and then serve my kids a hot dog and a smile for dinner. It was pathetic. So I started stocking the fridge on Sundays with grilled chicken, a plain salad and quinoa tabouleh. And I realized, in all of the chaos that was last year, that if I mixed pizza dough on Sunday…no kneading required…and let it rise for several days in the fridge, we could have pizza on Wednesday without breaking a sweat. It was a game changer. Wednesday night pizza meant that lunches were sorted for Thursday and Friday. Serious. Game. Changer.

Before We Get Started:

  • Let’s Talk Yeast. When I’m using store-bought yeast, I like to use Fleischmann’s Instant yeast. I’ve also used the Trader Joe’s yeast and it works great as well. For this recipe I use two packets of store-bought dry yeast. If you have a fresh starter, you can use 1/4 cup of your starter in place of the two packets of store-bought yeast. One last option, is to use 1/4 cup fresh starter + 2 teaspoons store-bought yeast for extra oomph…I like to do this one.
  • Make Ahead.  This recipe was created to be made in advance. The dough has to be made several days in advance of baking and the pizza sauce definitely benefits from several days in the fridge, giving the flavors a chance to meld and marry.
  • Timing Your Last Rise. If you get home from work by 6pm, divide your dough into six balls immediately and then by 8pm it should be ready to bake. I have also let it get that last rise on for hours. It’s not hot (at all) right now, the dough has been on the counter, covered, since 7am and I’m definitely going to bake the rest of the pizza at dinnertime. I would worry more about it having too little time to rest. If the dough is still chilled, it’s not going to rise as much in the oven.
  • Fridge Time. I’ve kept the dough in the fridge for two and all the way up to seven days. I think ideally, the window between days three and five is when the dough will taste its best…but nobody seemed to notice much difference on day seven…it’s just a bit flatter. Are you getting the gist that this dough is pretty bulletproof? You want the dough to have doubled in size and you want to see bubbles happening…then you know your dough is ready to be made.
  • Beer. I love the taste of beer in my pizza dough. Feel free to substitute water if beer isn’t your thing.
  • Taste and texture. One final note. The slow rise in the cold of the fridge really gives the dough time to develop flavor. Much more flavor than if you just do the usually, same-day rise + bake. It tastes like pizza crust should taste. Additionally, the texture is crisp. This will yield a crisp, thin-crust pizza with some bubble development. I don’t want anyone thinking they’re getting deep-dish anything…it’s not happening here. Thin and crispy all the way.

Easiest Pizza Dough Ever | recipe via DisplacedHousewife | No kneading! Mix ingredients, refrigerate for three days, bring to room temp and bake for 15 min @ 500F. Easiest. Pizza. Ever.

I made this pizza on Snapchat…here’s the video if you’d like to watch…just remember, it’s Snapchat. There will be occasional gray screens that show up, just keep watching…it will be a little uneven and goofy. xo

Easiest Pizza Dough Ever | recipe via DisplacedHousewife | No kneading! Mix ingredients, refrigerate for three days, bring to room temp and bake for 15 min @ 500F. Easiest. Pizza. Ever.

Easiest Pizza Dough Ever | recipe via DisplacedHousewife | No kneading! Mix ingredients, refrigerate for three days, bring to room temp and bake for 15 min @ 500F. Easiest. Pizza. Ever.

Easiest Pizza Dough Ever | recipe via DisplacedHousewife | No kneading! Mix ingredients, refrigerate for three days, bring to room temp and bake for 15 min @ 500F. Easiest. Pizza. Ever.

Easiest Pizza Dough Ever | recipe via DisplacedHousewife | No kneading! Mix ingredients, refrigerate for three days, bring to room temp and bake for 15 min @ 500F. Easiest. Pizza. Ever.

no-knead fridge pizza | recipe via displaced housewife #displacedhousewife #pizza

| pour me a martini pizza |

Makes Three Large or Six Individual Pizzas

INGREDIENTS

For the Dough

  • 12-ounce bottle of warm beer or water
  • 2 packages dry yeast (see note above on yeast)
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons honey (you can also substitute in 1 tablespoon of granulated sugar if you don’t have honey…I do this when I’m out)
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for the bowl. Go high-grade oil for the dough and you can step it down for the olive oil needed to lube up the rising bowl.
  • 4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 4 teaspoons of salt
  • Cornmeal for dusting underneath the dough

For the Sauce

  • 15 ounce-can of tomato sauce. Get the good stuff. I do go by this adage, if something you’re making has few ingredients then get the tastiest ingredients possible. It really does make a difference.
  • 1 1/2  tablespoons dried oregano
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 teaspoons of salt
  • I garlic clove, crushed

For the Toppings

  • This is where you can get frisky. I bought this black truffle pecorino cheese and paired it with burrata, parmesan, lemon zest, tomatoes + arugula. It was amazing. When we are totally busy and this is midweek pizza, I get pre-shredded cheese and pre-sliced pepperoni from Trader Joes. Burrata is another pizza game changer. Be sure to put less than you think as it gets quite oozy…but oh so delicious.

INSTRUCTIONS

For the Dough

  1. Put the beer or water, yeast, honey and olive oil in a large bowl. Let them mingle and get frothy for about 5 minutes.
  2. Once they are foaming up, add 4 cups of flour. Sprinkle in your salt. Stir with your hands until everything is well blended. The dough may feel a touch on the dry side.
  3. Run hot water over another bowl. Let’s call this your rising bowl. Get it all nice and warm and then dry it off. Pour a glug of olive oil in there and swirl it all around so that the dough won’t stick. Place your dough in here and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Shove in the back of your fridge and forget about it for at least three days.

For the Sauce

  1. Mix all of the sauce ingredients in a non-metallic bowl. Taste…does it need more salt? Oregano? Olive oil? I get pretty aggressive with these three ingredients. Add more in little bits until you hit your sweet spot. Cover and place in the fridge until ready to use.

Three days later…

  1. Pull out a baking sheet and cover it with parchment paper (if you can love parchment paper, I love parchment paper). Give it a light dusting with some flour.
  2. Take your pizza sauce out of the fridge and let it come to room temperature.
  3. Separate your refrigerated dough into 3 or 6 equally-sized dough balls. I like 6 because it feeds everyone and there is always leftovers. Even though it’s the same amount of dough, 3 never seems to go as far as 6. Set them on the baking sheet. If it got a little sticky, very lightly sprinkle the tops with some flour so that it doesn’t stick.
  4. Cover the dough balls with a clean towel and put the sheet in a warm, draft-free spot. If the humidity is low, lightly dampen the towel first. The dough needs to come completely to room temperature and double in size. This can take anywhere from 2-3 hours…I’ve let it hang out for less and more time. It’s pretty flexible dough, but use the 2-3 hours as your guideline.
  5. Pre-heat your oven to 500 degrees F, with a rack in the middle of the oven, about 30 minutes prior to bake time.

To Assemble

  1. I like to use my hands to get a decent disc shape with each dough. You don’t want it paper thin. I love thin crust too, but it will end up soggy and seepy if you do this. You don’t want to be able to see through it.
  2. You’re thinking you want lots of sauce, but you really don’t. A little really does go a long way and you don’t want to get soggy at this step either. Our goal is a seriously crisp crust.
  3. Same rule goes with the cheese…you don’t need as much as you think…it will just ooze over the sides and it won’t be pretty anymore. I like to add some cheese, a little topping and then a little more cheese.

For the Oven

  1. Put your pizza on the baking sheet, no parchment paper, with a sprinkle of cornmeal between the crust and the sheet.
  2. Bake for 12-15 minutes on the middle rack. Start watching around 12 minutes to gauge how your oven is cooking these guys.
  3. Let them cool a beat on the baking sheet and then transfer to a cooling rack…that will give them time to cool a touch whilst keeping the crust crisp.

A final, exciting note. The last time I made pizza I got tired of making pizza (I had doubled the batch). So I shaped them into circles, placed them between parchment paper (again, lightly floured so no one is sticking), wrap tightly in plastic wrap, then foil and then put in a freezer bag. Seems like a lot of layers but you don’t want freezer burn. I pulled them out a couple of days later, let them come to room temperature (no longer cool to the touch on either side) and cooked as normal and they came out great. Yeah, I was pretty excited about this. One last tip if you double the recipe…during the first rise, split the dough in two and put them in separate bowls. Trust me, if you leave it as one big heap of dough it will get really big and unmanageable.

{ on my mind }

  • My working title for this pizza was Fridge Pizza…it’s not a sexy title but it definitely gets the point across. I called it the Pour Me A Martini Pizza because you really don’t have much to do and it gives you heaps of time to put your feet up and have a martini at the end of the day. Which we need.
  • Hope your week is full of light and love! xoxo

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Comments

Leave a Comment & Rate this Recipe

I love your comments, reviews and questions! If you love this recipe, please rate it when you leave a comment. Star ratings 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 help people discover my recipes. Your support means a lot, I look forward to chatting with you!

Rebecca xox

20 Comments

  • Kelly September 20, 2021 at 12:50 PM

    Hi! My dough tasted really salty right after I mixed it together. Is that normal? Will the super salty flavor still be there after 3 days of rising?

    Reply
    • Rebecca Firth September 20, 2021 at 12:52 PM

      Hi Kelly! I have never had a problem with the dough being too salty and I make it frequently. As long as it’s measured correctly it will be fine!! Let me know how it goes!! xo

      Reply
      • Kelly September 20, 2021 at 12:55 PM

        Ok thank you!! Will keep you posted!

        Reply
  • Shefali July 24, 2021 at 6:52 AM

    This look delicious! I am going to give it a go. Which beer did you use? I am not a beer drinker but am willing to be adventurous for a great pizza!

    Reply
    • Rebecca Firth July 24, 2021 at 8:49 AM

      Hi Shefali! My favorite is Corona…whatever beer you choose, it should be light in flavor. I hope you love it, let me know how it goes! xo

      Reply
  • Leandra May 28, 2020 at 6:05 PM

    Fantastic – easy peasy recipe that you can start to anticipate and count down to pizza night with the whole family. And I got rid of some really tasty, but no longer fresh, local stout in my version! A hit! Thanks for the sourdough option, the only way to go in my opinion :)

    Reply
  • Eff April 11, 2020 at 10:57 PM

    Hi! Do you know how many teaspoons/grams are in the packets of yeast you use? I can’t compare as I don’t have your brands here. Thanks!

    Reply
    • Rebecca Firth April 12, 2020 at 12:50 AM

      Hi!! 2 1/4 teaspoons of yeast — thank you for the note, that’s good to have in here. Have fun and let me know if you have any other questions!! xoxo

      Reply
  • Lea February 1, 2019 at 10:40 PM

    OK, just made two batches…one with 00 flour and one with self rising. In the fridge now. My dough on both flours was a bit shaggy ( more moist than dry), so I guess we shall see. I’ve been using a recipe from NYT cooking ( Roberta’s) and it gets total hand knead of 6 minutes, so since I don’t have a stand mixer it has been the easiest to manage. Still lacking something though…I’m hoping the addition of beer ( yasss) and the fridge rise will be a game changer for me. Going to use one Sunday night so the rise time is only gonna be a little over 2 days, but leaving the other in for 3 + to gauge the difference. Cross your fingers for me!

    Reply
    • Rebecca Firth February 2, 2019 at 5:55 PM

      Hey Lea! I’m loving your experiment! I just used some last night (I believe it was day 4??) and it was so fabulous!!! I just love this dough. Please let me know how you like it!! xoxox

      Reply
  • Laura | Tutti Dolci June 16, 2016 at 12:27 AM

    Can I come over for dinner? ;) This pizza is everything! I’m so ready for a summer schedule and *all* the pizza nights!

    Reply
  • Cathy | whatshouldimakefor.com June 14, 2016 at 12:36 PM

    You had me at beer and martinis! I cannot wait to try this. Love that it can be prepped in advance. And I’d love to figure out a way to streamline our days during the school year but morning is always madness. Waking up a few minutes earlier would help, but doesn’t ever seem to happen. There’s always next year…

    Reply
    • DisplacedHousewife June 16, 2016 at 8:13 PM

      I can’t wake up earlier Cathy!! We need to find a better way!! #sos

      Reply
  • Traci | Vanilla And Bean June 13, 2016 at 11:32 AM

    Oh so happy to hear things have slowed and the rushing and stress is on pause for now. I can barely keep up with Rob and I. I can’t imagine having little humans to take care of in addition! What an easy, no fuss recipe, Rebecca. I could easily make Wednesday night pizza a thing as well as the martini. I couldn’t agree more on the marrying of flavors with the sauce and the resting of the dough – so much flavor (and flavor development) happening here! Well worth the small amount of effort… It seems often I think more about actually making food, then making it! haha!! – love the bubbly char on that cheese! I’ve got heart eyes! xo

    Reply
    • DisplacedHousewife June 13, 2016 at 5:21 PM

      Hi Traci!! When we lived in Beijing we had a full-time driver and cleaning lady/nanny…I seriously dream about it!!! Those two things would alleviate so much school-year stress! I am so glad that I started getting lazy with my dough and realized it yields such beautiful results. I should have noted that I was totally inspired with Jim Lahey’s method of bread making…some folding here and there…but no exhaustive kneading…just let the ingredients do their thing. Hope you have a wonderful week!! xo

      Reply
  • Mary Ann | The Beach House Kitchen June 13, 2016 at 10:48 AM

    I have to say Rebecca, I’m really liking this kid Gavin! Ice cream and pizza…he’s my kinda kid! This pizza looks and sounds incredibly delicious. I’m just drooling looking at your photos! Black truffle pecorino cheese and burrata? WHOA! I NEED to try this one ASAP!

    Reply
    • DisplacedHousewife June 13, 2016 at 5:18 PM

      Thanks Mary Ann!! He definitely has good taste. ;) You absolutely have to try that cheese…it’s seriously to-die for. I thought it would be too strong for my family…but everyone loved it!! xo

      Reply
  • Bob June 13, 2016 at 2:00 AM

    Oh. My. God. This looks AMAZING!! I’ve been searching for a no knead pizza dough recipe, and I’ve finally found one that looks good!! Will defiantly be trying this soon!

    Reply