Basic Pizza Dough

After you make this dough and realize how easy it is you will never want to order take out pizza again. This basic recipe can be used for Stromboli, bread sticks, or just your basic pizza dough. Any flavoring can be added to it to give it and extra kick such as garlic or basil. 


Basic Pizza Dough- Yields 2- 12 inch pizzas

Ingredients

1 tablespoon of active dry yeast

1 ½ cups warm water

3 ½ cups flour

1 tablespoon olive oil

Pinch of salt

Directions

1. In a small bowl add yeast and warm water. Stir and set aside for about 5 mins or when bubbles start to form.

2. Add flour to a large bowl or cutting board. Create a mound and make a hole in the middle large enough for the active yeast. Once you’ve added the yeast mixture to the flour add the olive oil and pinch of salt. Using a spatula draw the ingredients together

3. Once combined, knead the dough briefly adding a little flour if needed until dough no longer sticks to your hands.

4. Transfer dough to a bowl that’s been lightly greased with olive oil. Create an X mark on top using a knife and add a little oil to the top of to prevent the surface from breaking.

5. Cover the bowl with a cloth and let rise and double in size for about 1 ½ hours. Once doubled, punch it down to get air bubbles out. You can now roll out to desired size and bake or freeze.

                                                Baking

1. If using a pizza stone place it in the oven while it preheats at 450. Whatever you are using to transfer the rolled out dough to the oven (I have a pizza board) make sure you sprinkle it with corn meal so the dough does not stick. You can also use a regular metal pan, if not non-stick make sure you grease it.

2. I like to pre-bake it for about 5 to 10 minutes then add the sauce and toppings. Bake for another 10 minutes then add the cheese and bake for 5 more.  Check readiness by lifting one side of pizza.