Basic Pizza Dough

There might be a hundred pizza dough recipes out there and another one thousand ways to combine different toppings for the best pizza. As a beginner making pizza from scratch, I find this basic dough recipe simple enough to follow, and produces good result. My only gripe seems to come from my unpredictable mood for pizza, which makes waiting patiently for the dough to rise, a chore. Perhaps I should make them ahead and store them in freezer.

Basic Pizza Dough
adapted from marthastewart.com
Ingredients
2 packets active dry yeast
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 cup olive oil
2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 cup warm water
4 cups all purpose flour

Direction

1. Pour 1 1/2 cups warm water into a large bowl; sprinkle with yeast and let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes.
2. Whisk sugar, oil, and salt into yeast mixture. 
3. Add flour and stir until a sticky dough forms. Transfer dough to an oiled bowl and brush top with oil. 
4. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and set aside in a warm, draft-free place until dough has doubled in bulk, about 1 hour. 
5. Turn out onto a lightly floured work surface and gently knead 1 or 2 times before using.

Cook's Note

To freeze, you can wrap the dough in plastic and freeze it in a resealable freezer bag for up to 3 months. If you plan to use it in a recipe that calls for half a batch, divide it before freezing.

Bacon and Caramelized Onion Pizza.

Bacon and Egg Breakfast Pizza.

Basically not much kneading is needed. I only used the spatula to mix the ingredients together and lightly knead the dough until it was smooth. It took me lesser than 10 minutes to put the dough together and while waiting for it to rise, I prepared the toppings. After rising, I formed the dough using my hands, as I did not want to pull out the rolling pin. It works well too.


I am sharing this with Miz Helen's Full Plate Thursday 6-21-12.