Pizza Dough

Making your own pizza dough can seem like a difficult task, but with the right recipe, a few practice runs, and good ingredients, you will (hopefully) have a blast making your own pizza at home. It's also a great way to introduce children to cooking, especially when they get to make their own pizza and choose their favorite toppings!

Pro Tips:

-Use 00 flour (or bread flour as an alternative good option) - its high protein helps develop gluten in the dough for the signature chewy texture you expect from a good pizza.

-Letting the dough proof at room temp, and then an overnight proof in the oven is key to developing deep flavor and proper gluten development.

-Use semolina or cornmeal on your pizza peel or pizza stone itself to prevent the dough from sticking when transferring to and from the oven

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Ingredients:

3 cups bread flour & 2 cups all purpose flour

(you can use 5 cups bread flour instead or experiment with different ratios, I cut some out so that it doesn't get too chewy)

2 tsp instant dry yeast

1 Tbsp sugar

2 tsp salt

1 3/4 cup luke warm water

1/3 cup olive oil (or a neutral oil like canola or grape seed)

Lets get cooking

1. In a mixing bowl, combine all of the ingredients together starting with the wet ingredients.

2. Place the bowl in your stand mixer and using the dough hook, set the mixer to the low setting (3-4 on a kitchen-aid).

3. Allow the mixer to knead for 4-7 minutes or until the dough forms a ball and is no longer sticking to the side of the bowl. If it is too wet, add some more flour 1 sprinkle at a time.

4. Pull the dough out and divide into 4-6 equal parts, depending on how big of a pizza you want to make, and form them into balls by rolling them around in your hand and forming a ball shape. 4 will make fairly large pizzas but check how big your pizza stone and/or pizza oven is so you are not making it too large for that space. 6 usually works well for a good size personal pizza.

5. Lightly oil the top of the dough balls, and place the dough on an oiled sheet pan/cookie tray and cover loosely with a moist towel or saran wrap. Make sure there is space so that the dough can rise. Let it rise in a warm area for 4-6 hours. I put them in my oven after letting it preheat to 200 degrees, and then let it cool down some (the oven should just be warm, not at all hot when placing the dough to rest.)

6. After 4-6 hours, you can either use the dough now, freeze them for later use, or transfer them to the fridge for an overnight proof. This will produce a better texture and flavor for the dough by cold proofing the dough in the fridge. To freeze them, simply wrap each ball tightly in saran wrap and tie a knot on the top or use a twist tie to keep the air out.

7. When you are ready to use the dough, leave them out for at least 1 hour or more so that it can get to room temperature and will be easier to shape. If you are using it from frozen, thaw them in the fridge the night before and then let them sit out for a few hours to get up to room temperature.