Pizza Dough

Pizza Dough

3¾ cups flour [5-6 cups]
1 Tb. instant yeast [2 Tb.]
1 tsp. salt [2 tsp.]
½ tsp. sugar [1 Tb.]
1 cup warm water [2 cups]
1 Tb. vegetable or olive oil [1/4 cup]
Combine flour, instant yeast, salt, and sugar in bowl and stir well. Add vegetable oil and water. Mix well together. Knead for about 3 minutes, until dough blisters and is smooth and elastic. Cover and let rise until double in volume. After rolling the dough out, let rise on the pan for 10 to 15 min. Put desired toppings on the pizza. Place pizza on the bottom rack of a cold oven. Turn oven to 500° and bake 12 to 20 minutes, until dough is cooked through in the center of pizza. You can also bake this pizza at 425° for 18- 20 minutes. We skip all of the rising steps and the pizza still turns out great.

Additional notes: This recipe makes two small, one 16”, or two large thin-crust pizzas. The amounts in brackets will make three large thinner-crust pizzas. You can substitute 1 cup whole wheat flour for the white flour and no one will know the difference. Add 1-2 tsp. oregano to the flour for a fancy crust. To avoid greasing pans, sprinkle pizza pans with cornmeal and place the uncooked dough on the pan. If you are going to freeze the dough for later use, you need to partially bake it.

Another view of a pizza from Eliza.