easy homemade pizza dough
we are pizza lovers. with 4 kids in the house, we really have no choice to be. kids love pizza. as a stay home mom, i am always trying to find ways to save money by making my own food. whether it is pizza dough, or homemade syrup, it all adds up. now if you have a mixer with a dough hook, i love you. lol. i do not have one, as of yet. so thinking about making dough especially on one of my busy days is not a happy thought. but once i make the pizza, i feel glad that i saved a few dimes for later. we use this recipe for various pizza recipes, including our white ricotta pizza, bbq bacon and grilled corn pizza, flank steak and blue cheese flatbreads. this recipe will have your family eating homemade pizza in a flash.
ingredients:
- 1 (.25 ounce) package yeast -
- 1 cup of warm water -
- 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar -
- 1 teaspoon salt -
- 2 tablespoons olive oil -
- 2 1/2 cups of bread flour, plus more for the board -
instructions:
- pour the contents of the yeast package into a medium sized bowl. add the warm water. stir to combine and wait for the yeast to bloom. you will know the yeast has bloomed after a few minutes when there is foam on top water.
- whisk in the sugar, salt and olive oil until dissolved. mix in the flour and stir until combined.
- pour the dough out onto a floured surface and knead the dough until the dough is smooth, dusting with more flour as you knead, if needed (no pun intended). place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl. turn the dough in the bowl to lightly oil the dough.
- cover and let the dough rise until doubled in volume, about an hour. punch the dough down and pour the dough out onto a floured surface.
- i start by patting the dough into a disk. i cut my dough in half. we like thinner pizza crust. you may want to leave yours whole.
- at this point, you could place the dough(s) into individual freezer bags and freeze it. pizza dough is easy to defrost. just thaw out in the fridge overnight, the day before you would like to use it.
- with a rolling pin, roll the dough outward starting from the center. sometimes the dough will snap back and kinda give resistance. once that happens, let it rest for a few minutes. once you try again, it should roll out easier.
- if you like an extra crunchy crust or want to ensure a nice, fully cooked pizza dough, prebake it. place your rolled out dough on your baking tray or pizza stone and bake it in the oven at 375 degrees for 5 - 8 minutes, depending on how thick your crust is and how crunchy you like your pizza. remove the crust from the oven and top it with desired toppings. bake as usual.
- store bought pizza dough tip - if you are buying fresh pizza dough, place it in the fridge to give it time to chill and rest. cool, relaxed dough is much easier to roll out.
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