This is an amazingly simple and quick pizza dough recipe. This dough rises quickly to make an exceptional pizza like you would find in any pizza place.
This is the second recipe in my “Bread Is Back Bitches” series where I explore some of the great things that bread has to offer. Pizza crust is one of the great ones. You can not only make pizza, but calzones, breadsticks, dessert pizzas, or anything your imagination can come up with.
How Pizza Dough Is Made
Making a pizza dough recipe is easier than enduring the 2016 election year. Making dough is basically, flour, water, salt, oil, and yeast. Five simple ingredients mixed all together to create a crust for pizza, breadsticks, calzones, or anything your heart can think of. Even tossing it in the face of that asshole politician you are sick and tired of hearing on the news. I am not recommending that you do such an act, you might get arrested. LOL So better to use the dough for things like eating.
Which Pizza Pan
You don’t need a fancy pizza pan or pizza stone if you have a good ole [easyazon_link identifier=”B00006JSUA” locale=”US” tag=”thecu0a-20″]cast iron skillet[/easyazon_link]. The 10-inch skillet is perfect for a small pizza for two. If you don’t have cast iron skillet, get one! They are one of the most versatile kitchen items you will own, they are inexpensive, with a little care, they will last a lifetime. The cast iron skillet does a great job cooking the crust evenly.
Where To Buy Pizza Dough
There are a couple of different options if you chose to buy pizza dough. Many supermarkets have a great packaged dough in their deli section. These come in a bag and are already mixed together. All you have to do is let the dough rise for about 30 minutes and you are ready to go. Another option I have used before is to go to Papa Murphy’s and buy their dough. The nice thing is that they will form it out and put it on one of their baking sheets for you. All you do is add the ingredients. But of course, why not just buy their pizza if you are going to do that. You are missing out on the fun of making the dough.
How To Make Pizza Dough At Home
Any dough is formed with four basic ingredients. Four, water, yeast and salt. You can add other variants to that like eggs, oil, sugar, herbs, but the basis is four simple ingredients. These must be mixed, the yeast must activate to rise so that the dough is about double in size, then the dough is formed into the crust. I’ll show you how to do it with this recipe. Don’t worry, I promise it really is easier than listening to politicians, or in the case of the 2016 election, looking at politicians.
Kneading pizza dough by hand.
Which Flour To Use To Make The Pizza Dough Recipe
According to Bobby Flay, using bread dough will give you a much crispier crust. However, all-purpose flour works great too, if you don’t have bread flour on hand. When it comes to flour, you can get pretty technical with it. That is beyond the scope of this post so we are going to just say, listen to Bobby Flay and use either bread flour or all-purpose flour. If you plan on going pro, well, your flour and your yeast may be quite different than what a professional baker would use. This simple pizza dough recipe just uses all-purpose flour because most of us have it on hand.
To knead, fold pizza dough over and press with heal of the hand.
Which Yeast For Pizza Dough
There is basically two type of yeast available in grocery stores for the home baker, instant dry yeast or active dry yeast. Active yeast must use warm water to be activated and proofed. Instant yeast doesn’t need to be proofed; it can be added directly to the dough. If you want this pizza dough recipe to rise quickly, instant will be quicker, but either one works fine as long as you give the dough time to double in size.
Why Toss Pizza Dough
Tossing pizza serves a couple of different purposes. First of all, tossing the pizza shapes it to the size you want. Second, tossing pizza brings more of the crust towards the outside of the pizza. And third, tossing helps to dry out the outside of the crust to make it crunchy on the outside.
How To Toss Pizza
I first learned to toss a pizza years ago at a popular chain pizza place in my college town. I was taught to practice using a damp hand towel. This is an excellent way to get the technique down without destroying your dough. I recommend trying it this way first. The dough will usually be in a rough mound when you get it proofed. Use room temperature dough as the cold dough will not shape easily. Here are the steps.
- Place the dough on a floured surface and flattened the mound from the middle out until it reaches about 1o inches in diameter.
- Pick up the pizza with both hands, holding it from the bottom with the back of your hands., form one hand into a fist and take your dominant hand and turn it palm up with fingers closed and give it a spin in the air. You don’t have to toss it high, just enough to give it a spin.
- Repeat the tossing until the pizza forms the size you desire, usually around 12 inches.
- Place the dough in a pizza pan, cast iron pan, or pizza spatula and add your toppings to bake.
Will Pizza Dough Keep In The Fridge
The pizza dough recipe will keep in the refrigerator for about two weeks, but I wouldn’t leave it that long. If you plan to store the dough for any amount of time, be sure you remove as much air as you can from the container and place plastic over it to keep it from drying out.
Storing pizza dough in plastic wrap.
Can Pizza Dough Be Frozen
The same goes if you plan to freeze the pizza dough recipe. I recommend a zip lock freezer bag with as much air removed as possible. Thaw the dough out by placing it in the refrigerator the day before you plan to use it.
Ingredients
- 4 c all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling
- 1 envelope instant dry yeast
- 2 tsp kosher salt
- 1 to 1/2 c water, 110 degrees F
- 2 tbsp olive oil
Instructions
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Add flour, yeast, salt in a stand mixer with a dough hook. While the mixer is running, add the water and oil and mix until the dough forms a ball. If the dough is too sticky add a little more flour, if it is too dry, add a more water a little at a time.
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Scrape the dough onto a clean, floured surface and knead into a firm ball, about 5 minutes. If you use a stand mixer, the dough can be kneaded with a dough hook.
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Grease a bowl, or spray non stick olive oil spray in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Set in a warm place for about an hour, or until double in size. Turn out the dough onto a floured surface and divide equally in half.
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Shape dough by rolling out or tossing. Place onto rounds or place in a 10 inch cast iron skillet. Add pizza ingredients. Alternatively, you can wrap each half in plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator until you are ready to use it.
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Alternatively, the dough can be used for breadsticks, calzones, or other items.
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I love pizza in a cast iron skillet! I freeze my pizza sauce into muffin cups for later use, but I hadn’t thought to freeze the dough. What a time-saver! When I’m craving pizza–um…like right now–anything that speeds up the process and lessens the effort of getting that cheesy goodness into my mouth is a great thing! I bet adding some garlic powder and oregano would be the bomb!
That is an excellent idea and maybe some parmesan cheese and basil as well. When I made this the other night, I immediate was asked when I was making it again. I made these into two large calzones. Next time, I want to try dividing it into 4 calzones. That will make them into a personal calzone which is more fun. You can also make these into breadsticks. After they are done baking, brush them with melted butter or olive oil and sprinkle with parmesan cheese and garlic powder. It’s really delicious!