Forget greasy take out pizzas, stay home and make your own! This dough is one of the best I've discovered so far. Make two thin crust pizzas, or one thick crust, and freeze half for another day. I've even been known to make pizza with one half, the shape the other half into knots, brush with garlic butter and bake.
Ingredients:
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
1 1/3 cups warm water
3 1/2 -3 3/4 cups flour (try using 1 cup whole wheat flour and the rest all purpose white flour)
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
Stir together yeast, 3 cups of flour, salt, and sugar in a large bowl. Set aside. In a large measuring cup, stir together the warm water and oil. Pour the water mixture into the flour mixture, stirring with a wooden spoon until the mixture comes together into a dough. Turn out the dough on to a lightly floured counter, kneading for 10 minutes until smooth and elastic. Shape into a ball.
Make ahead: place the dough into ziplock bags and put in the freezer. To make pizza, remove the dough from the freezer about 5 hours before you are going to shape and top it so that it can thaw and rise.
Brush the inside of a large bowl with olive oil, then set the dough inside, turning to coat it all over with oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set some place draft free and warm to rise for about 90 minutes.
Punch down the dough on a lightly flour surface, then shape and pull into two 10-12 inch rounds for thin crust, one for a thick crust. You can, at this point, follow directions to bake the dough on a pizza stone or use a baking sheet, like I do.
Top and bake at 450 F for about 10 minutes, then turn the oven to broil and broil, watching carefully, until the toppings are golden and bubbly.
For ideas on how to top your pizza, check out my family's favorite combinations!
For a great homemade pizza sauce recipe, click here.
Adapted from A Peek Inside the Fishbowl
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