We make homemade pizza about once a month, with two boys in the house it's an often requested dinner. However, my last attempt at pizza dough was a yeast disaster. I overheated the dough and killed the yeast. Last week I set out to calmly become friends with yeast and make a few beautiful homemade pizzas. I have come to rely on Alice Waters' Chez Panisse Pasta, Pizza & Calzone cookbook for a basic pizza dough recipe. She calls for kneading the dough 10-15 minutes. I measured out the ingredients and began kneading the first batch. I was kneading, and kneading, and kneading, then, I had an idea. Another favorite baking cookbook of mine is Suzanne Dunaway's No Need to Knead. We have had fabulous results with her techniques. And as my hands were beginning to cramp up, I decided, HEY, I'm not going to knead the second batch! So, I just mixed the ingredents all together into a ball and stopped there.
In the end, I preferred the no-knead pizza. The dough was easier to work with but still provided a lovely crunchy crust and held up to a lot of toppings (sausage, pepperoni, mushrooms, onions).
The kneaded dough was turned into two mini-pizzas for the boys. They turned out crunchy as well, but I'd say with a little too much chew.
So if the difference between the two is minor, and in favor of the easier method, I say why knead if there is no need?
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