Easy and Pretty Quick Pizza Dough

Easy and quick home-made pizza dough looks so inviting... c'mon sauce and cheese!

I have wanted to make my own pizza dough for awhile, but I always end up buying it from my local Italian deli or Trader Joe’s. 99 cents and so easy, and pretty tasty. I had made pizza dough many years ago (pre-kids, when I had more time and more patience) and I knew it was superior, but whenever I look at recipes that read “Let it rise again”, my eyes glaze over. Sorry, but too much waiting.

But I was determined to try it again and I was glad I did. This recipe (adapted from Sackville at RecipeZaar.) has 3 basic steps: Mix, Rise and Roll out. I like simple. It’s super-delicious, super-easy and pretty quick too — about an hour from start to finish. Halve the recipe and it rises even quicker. The secret is using fast-acting yeast, which rises about twice as fast as regular yeast.

This recipe is for 2 medium-thick 12-inch crusts, and you can easily reduce ingredients by half for one crust and it will rise more quickly. I think the extra rising time is worth having 2 doughs ready to use. You can freeze one if you don’t need it within the next few days.

Ingredients

• Instant (or Fast-Acting) Yeast - 1 envelope (2 tsp.)
• Flour - 6 cups (I used bread flour, which is more gluteny, but regular flour is fine) plus more for rolling out the dough.
• Sugar - 1 tsp.
• Salt - 1 tsp.
• Olive Oil - 2 Tblsp.
• Warm water - 2 1/2 cups
• Corn Meal - a few tsps. for placing on the pan, under the crust (optional; you can also use flour)

1. Mix all ingredients in a large bowl with your (clean) hands) or food processor (using dough paddle) until it forms a big sticky, well-blended but messy ball. It will be sticky; that’s OK.
2. Transfer to an oiled bowl, cover with a clean dish towel and place in a warmish draft-free area (your oven is ideal, or any warm corner somewhere is fine.)
3. Let the dough rise for 45-60 minutes, until it doubles in size.
4. Remove half the dough from the bowl and place on a floured surface.
5. Punch down to remove air and knead with your hands, adding small handfuls of flour to decrease the stickiness and make it smooth. Knead by pushing the dough ball with the heel of your hands, folding over the sides of the dough with both hands and pressing down with the heels of your hands again, over and over.
6. Knead and add flour for about 5 minutes, or until it’s not sticky anymore. When it is smooth and pliable, it’s ready for flattening into your desired shape.
7. To flatten, form the dough into a round disc about an inch thick. Make sure your surface stays floury to avoid sticking. You can press it out with your hands, lifting occassionally and pressing more to form the shape you want (1 inch larger than a pan if you are using a pan and want a thicker edge). I prefer to roll the dough out with a rolling pin (floured) because it’s faster, more accurate and smoother. For some reason I also like to hum “That’s amore” when I roll out pizza crusts. It seems to help.
8. Flip the dough over once or twice as you press/roll it out, to make sure it’s not sticking to your surface. Use flour to avoid sticking.
9. Sprinkle some corn meal or on your pan and place the crust on the pan.
10. You can let it rise for 10 minutes or not - it is ready for you to add ingredients.

Tags: Basic How-To, Italian