Basic Pizza Dough
Posted on 21 Jan 2014I make pizza fairly often and I feel that I have perfected my dough recipe
| Yield | Enough dough for three 12-inch or two 18-inch pizzas |
| Prep Time | 10 minutes prep plus 1-2 hours proofing |
Ingredients
| Amount | Ingredient | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 3 cup | all-purpose or bread flour | — |
| 1 tablespoon | kosher salt | — |
| 1 ⅓ cups | warm water | 40-45°C (104-113°F) |
| 1 packet | dry inactive yeast | one packet is about 1 tablespoon |
| 1 tablespoon | sugar | — |
| ¼ cup | olive oil | — |
Directions
- Dissolve the yeast and sugar in the warm water. Let stand until the yeast is activated (about 10 minutes).
- Combine the flour and salt in a large bowl. Make a well and pour in the yeast mixture, olive oil.
- Mix until a loose dough has formed then using your hand form the dough into a ball.
- Knead the dough for 8-10 minutes. When kneading be sure to use a consistent folding motion which will best align the gluten protein strands.
- Loosely cover the dough with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled in volume (1-2 hours) [see above].
Suggested Baking
My preferred method to bake pizzas is to parbake the crust in a deep cast-iron pan, top, then finish under a broiler.
Things You Need
| Item | Notes |
|---|---|
| cast iron pan | — |
| semolina or cornmeal | for dusting |
Directions
- Preheat and oven to its hottest temperature, this is around 500°F for most conventional ovens.
- Place your cast iron pan in the oven to preheat along with the oven.
- With your formed pizza at the ready, dust the preheat pan with semolina or cornmeal and place the pizza on top.
- Bake for 10-15 minutes until the crust is lightly browned.
- Top par-baked crust(s) with whatever you like.
- Switch your oven to broil. Return topped pizza to oven and finish baking until the edges of the crust are golden brown.