A dough that will live in infamy

I got the recipe for this no-knead pizza dough from here, a blog that I ran across that I'm absolutely in love with. I just have to say that I aspire to post as frequently and creatively as albanyjane, and leave it at that. 
Just be advised that you need to start this the day before you want to eat it. It's so worth it though! Long rise time = incredible tastiness. 

No-knead pizza dough 
Makes 3 8-10 inch pizzas (serves 3-4) Amazing, by the way. Best pizza dough I think I've ever had, if you take away my goof-up*. In case you wondered how I feel about it. 

Combine: 3 c. flour 
1/4 tsp. yeast 
1 1/2 Tbsp. salt (yep ... 1 1/2 TABLESPOONS of salt. I think you could probably cut down on it but I'm a little afraid to because I don't know how important it is. My husband did say he thought the dough was a little too salty though so I think I might tweak it next time.) 
Add 1 1/2 c. water (a little more if the dough is too stiff) and mix. 
Cover and let rise for 18+ hours (I let mine rise 22 hours, from 6 PM on Saturday night until 4 PM Sunday). Don't scrimp on the rise time. 

When you uncover it, it should smell a little funky and have lots of air bubbles in it. Oh, joy.  
Flour a large cutting board. Pour all dough out onto board and sprinkle it with more flour. 
Fold over a few times (sounds like kneading to me, but I guess for the integrity of the recipe name we can just say it's an easy folding of the dough). 

Divide into three sections, re-flour the cutting board, and put the dough back on the board, cover, and allow it to rest for 1-2 hours (at this point, if you're using a smaller cutting board, you can flour another board or two and divide the dough between boards. Or, you can follow albanyjane's directions that involve flouring a cloth and all that. I avoided placing my dough on a cloth and just left it on the cutting board, and it was just fine.) 

When time's up, heat oven to 450 degrees and uncover the dough sections. 

Place one on parchment paper OR a greased baking sheet (you can throw some cornmeal on the sheet before putting the dough on it if you're adventurous). 

Spread out the dough to the desired size (I ended up just plopping it down and pushing the edges out until they formed 8 to 10 inch ovals ... ). 

You can put whatever you want to on there ... we did an olive oil/salt/pepper base for each one, then some variation of sliced tomatoes, fresh basil, colored peppers, bacon, cheddar, and manchego cheese. You could go fancier or just put on it whatever you wanted. I think next time I'm going to try a pesto base with a few veggies. It'd also be good with just some fresh herbs. OK, I'll be honest. I think it'd be just as good if it didn't have any toppings. I'm crazy about this stuff ... 

If you put the dough on parchment paper, slide the parchment paper onto a baking stone or cookie sheet. Bake at 450 for 10-12 minutes or until cheese is melted and dough (though still pretty light) is brown. And as you're eating it, think of all the amazing things you can do with this dough. It will change your life. 

*goof-up follows: First, I'd like to defend myself a little bit. I substitute. I use sour cream instead of milk, beans instead of corn, lentils instead of ground beef, and mustard in place of lemon juice (sometimes). And every time, whatever I'm making comes out just fine. I experiment (especially when guests are coming.) 

Why not? I joke (if the fact comes out that dinner is a new recipe I've never tried) that if it fails, I'll treat them to a burger from the fast food restaurant down the street. And every time, whatever I'm making comes out just fine. I improvise. If I don't have what a recipe calls for, I make a judgement as to whether or not it's actually an important ingredient. If I don't have the right size of pan, I find a different one. And every time, whatever I'm making comes out just fine. 

So, I had the basic ingredients for this lovely dough. The first twenty three hours and forty-eight minutes went by without a hitch. When the dough was ready, I opened my drawer to pull out my parchment paper and realized I didn't have any. Who cares, right? You can use wax paper instead, right? I remembered my mom lining cake pans with wax paper, and it peeled off so beautifully after baking I knew I was on to something. 

So, I tore off three sections of wax paper, plopped down my dough, spread it out, topped it with cheeses, and baked said lovely pizza for the required 10 minutes in the 450 degree oven. 

I think my first clue should've been how much the dough stuck to the wax paper as I was spreading it out. But I didn't really realize anything was amiss until I removed the first pizza from the oven and started to remove the wax paper. There was no lovely peeling-off of the paper. It adhered. It wasn't just like the dough was kinda stuck to the paper. The paper had melted into the dough. 

Have I mentioned yet that we had some friends over for dinner? And that I had joked about treating them to a burger if this didn't work out? No one got any burgers, but we all approached our waxy pizza in different ways ... 

friend (female): encouraging. eat pizza while trying to avoid wax paper. comment on tastiness of food. ask for recipe. some scraping of pizza off of wax paper. 

friend (male): deliberate. eat pizza layer by layer: topping first, then dough. use knife to scrape wax paper to get some dough off. continue to use knife, focusing on 4x4 inch square of paper, with ultimate goal being to remove every vestige of food from wax paper. laugh at absurdity of working so hard for a square of dough. still working on first piece of wax paper pizza when second piece is served. 

husband: methodical. tear exposed edges of paper off. use knife and fork to cut through pizza, then use knife to pry lower layers from wax paper.

me: hungry. try a couple of times to peel off wax paper before taking bite. impatient with ordeal. eat pizza AND wax paper after brief contemplation of level of toxicity of ingested paper.

Moral of the story: stop joking about the burgers.