Perfect Pizza Dough

I love pizza. I love preparing it, I love cooking it, and of course, I love eating it. Pizza is one of those meals that I just never get bored of. 


The other night I thought it was time to try a new pizza dough recipe. Normally when I make pizza dough, I make thin crust pizza dough. This time I decided to make thick crust pizza dough. It was AMAZING! This will defiantly be my new pizza dough recipe from now on. 

 Perfect Pizza Dough

Makes: 2 pizza bases

Ingredients:

½ cup warm water

2 ¼ tsp. instant yeast

1 ¼ cups water, at room temperature

2 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil

4 cups plain flour, plus more for dusting

1 ½ tsp. salt

Olive oil or non-stick cooking spray for greasing the bowl

Directions:

Pour the warm water in a medium bowl. Sprinkle the yeast over the water and leave for about 5 minutes. Add the room temperature water and oil and stir to combine.  

Place the flour and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Stir ingredients on a low speed for about 30 seconds. Slowly start to add the liquid ingredients and continue to mix on a low speed until the dough starts to come together.  Stop the mixer and replace the paddle with the dough hook. Continue to mix the dough for about 5 minutes, or until the dough is smooth and elastic.  

Form the dough into a ball, place in a deep oiled bowl, turning over once and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise until doubled in size, about 1 ½ to 2 hours. Once the dough has rinsed, punch the dough to deflate it. 

To bake, place a pizza stone (or in my case a pizza tray) in the lower third of the oven. Heat the oven to 250° for at least 30 minutes. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. Divide the dough into two equal pieces. Place the dough onto baking paper. Shape the dough with lightly floured hands. Brush the outer edge lightly with olive oil. Top as desired. Slide onto to heated pizza stone or tray (be careful not to burn yourself). Bake until the crust is golden brown, and cheese is bubbling, 8-12 minutes. 

Source: adapted from http://annies-eats.com/2008/08/15/perfect-pizza-crust/