Makes 1 Large Pizza with med thin crust
We love this pizza dough recipe and wanted to share it with all our friends. Never have we had such delicious home made dough before. It rise's beautifully. Make sure you follow each step for an outstanding pizza experience!
Ingredients:
1 package (2 1/4 tsp) active dry yeast
1 1/3 cups warm water- 1 tbs white sugar
3 1/2 - 3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour*(I like 1 cup wholewheat, 2 1/2 cups all- purpose flour)
1 tbs olive oil
1 tbs salt (Optional. I add a pinch of sea salt.)
1 tbs sugar (Optional. Use sugar if you like a puffier crust.)
1-2 tsp Italiano spice (optional).
Dissolve sugar in hot water, add yeast(i usually use a 2 cup measuring glass) . Let stand for 5 - 10 minutes until yeast is dissolved and is starting to foam up.
In medium silver bowl add dry ingredients. Than make a slight well in your flour mix, add yeast mix and oil. Mix until it’s all holding together. Turn dough onto lightly floured surface and knead for 10 minutes. Don’t skimp on the kneading! The dough should be smooth and elastic, tacky, not sticky, when you’re done.
Transfer it over to a bowl that you’ve lightly coated with additional olive oil. Turn the dough over to coat completely. Cover with plastic wrap or a clean and floured dishtowel and let rise in a warm place. I like to put mine in the oven, which has been preheated for about a minute (then turned off). Keep it in there for about 90 minutes until it’s about doubled in volume.
Punch the dough down and divide it in half. At this point you can use all the dough to make one large thick-crust pizza, two smaller pizzas
Roll your dough into a ball and let it rest, loosely covered, for about 10-15 minutes. While it’s resting, preheat the oven to 450F. Grease and dust your baking stone or baking sheet with cornmeal (don’t skip this step!), flatten the dough and roll it out flat.
The dough will be fairly elastic, so you’ll have to stretch it out. Place the dough on your baking sheet. To prevent the toppings from making the crust soggy, brush the top of the dough with a bit of additional olive oil. Use your fingers to push dents into the surface of the dough. This will prevent air holes bubbling up as it bakes. Let it rest for 10 minutes while you prep your toppings.
(We like grated zucchini to cover pizza sauce, than small cauliflower pieces, asparagus spears(cut in half), olives, fresh or dried thyme, sea salt and fresh cracked pepper, sprinkled parmesan, grated cheddar, crumbled feta, smoked gouda, prosciutto (we like to put meat on top when we use the prosciutto it makes it crispy).
(When preparing your cheese take out of fridge when your preparing your dough and have it grated and set to the side- cheese will brown nicely on top of pizza if it's at room temperature).
And finally I like to mix a 1/2 tsp garlic salt and 1 tbsp olive oil, take a basting brush and completely cover all exposed edges.
It will take about 12-15 minutes to bake.
Let us know if you like it!!
(we really like to use the cream sauce from Jarom's recipe " fresh tomatoe chicken feta penne" as the base for this recipe).
