What is a good recipe for homemade pizza dough?

Question

I've been considering playing around with making some homemade pizzas and figured the dough would be the hardest part to get right.

Answer 1

Pizza Dough
1 packet active dry yeast
1 tablespoon white sugar
2 1/2 cups warm water (110 degrees)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon salt
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
5 1/2 cups bread flour

DIRECTIONS:

In a large mixing bowl, dissolve yeast and sugar in
the warm water. Let sit until creamy; about 10
minutes. Stir the olive oil, whole wheat flour, salt
and 4 cups of the bread flour into the yeast mixture.

Mix in the remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time,
stirring well after each addition.

When the dough has pulled together, turn it out onto a
lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and
elastic, about 8 minutes. Lightly oil a large mixing
bowl, place the dough in the bowl and turn to coat
with oil. Cover with a damp cloth and put in a warm
place to rise until doubled in volume; about 1 hour.

Deflate the dough and turn it out onto a lightly
floured surface. Divide the dough into three equal
pieces and form into rounds.

Cover the rounds and let them rest for about
10 minutes. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Use a rolling pin to roll the dough into the desired
shape, cover it with your favorite toppings
and bake at 425 degrees for about 20 minutes
or until the crust and cheese are golden brown.

Makes 3 pizza crusts

Answer 2

Made this one before, and its delicious: Ingredients * 2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast * 1/2 teaspoon brown sugar * 1 1/2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C) * 1 teaspoon salt * 2 tablespoons olive oil * 3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour Directions 1. In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast and brown sugar in the water, and let sit for 10 minutes. 2. Stir the salt and oil into the yeast solution. Mix in 2 1/2 cups of the flour. 3. Turn dough out onto a clean, well floured surface, and knead in more flour until the dough is no longer sticky. Place the dough into a well oiled bowl, and cover with a cloth. Let the dough rise until double; this should take about 1 hour. Punch down the dough, and form a tight ball. Allow the dough to relax for a minute before rolling out. Use for your favorite pizza recipe. 4. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). If you are baking the dough on a pizza stone, you may place your toppings on the dough, and bake immediately. If you are baking your pizza in a pan, lightly oil the pan, and let the dough rise for 15 or 20 minutes before topping and baking it. 5. Bake pizza in preheated oven, until the cheese and crust are golden brown, about 15 to 20 minutes.

Answer 3

Yeast dough is more about technique than recipe. It takes some practice to get the skill of mixing and kneading dough. But it's fun, and it's worth it. Your first two or three pizzas might not be -great- but still good enough to eat--and I think the first one you make will be better than one of those awful frozen pizzas.

Just about any recipe for bread dough would work. I have made whole-wheat pizza, dark rye pizza, etc. But authentic pizza dough is more like French bread (or Italian bread, which is very similar). And that kind of bread is the simplest! Flour, a little salt, yeast, and enough water to make a dough. (The salt is important because it moderates the yeast, also because the bread tastes 'flat' without it. Maybe a quarter of a teaspoon per cup of flour). If you want to 'proof' the yeast in half a cup of warm water with a little sugar or honey, that's okay too, but it's not as necessary today as it used to be.

If you add a little fat (olive oil, maybe a teaspoon per cup of flour) the dough will be a bit softer, not 'chewy' like French bread, more like white bread. You can also add herbs, like oregano, and even grated Parmesan cheese, but now we're just getting fancy.

Mix the dough and knead. You knead it by smooshing it out under the heel of your hand, folding it in half, turning it 90%, smooshing it out again. You do this for what seems like a long long time, and the first few times your hands will get sore.

You know you've kneaded enough when you can make a 'window'. You make a window by taking a little bit of dough and stretching it between your fingers, in two directions, to make it thinner and thinner. Eventually you get down to a very very thin sort of 'membrane' that you can almost see through. That's a window. That's how you know the dough is kneaded enough. The biggest mistake new bread makers make is not kneading enough. Of course if you have a bread machine, or a mixer with a dough hook, that's much better. The pizza will come out just as good as if you did it by hand.

Put the dough in a bowl smeared with a tiny bit of oil so it won't stick to the bowl. Cover it with Saran wrap and let it rise in a warm place for an hour or so until double in bulk. Then push it gently down with your fingers until almost its original size. (If you have a gas oven with a pilot light, this is a great place to raise dough. The pilot light gives just enough heat!)

Spread the dough out with your fingers--don't roll it. If it's properly kneaded it should stretch out into a round flat shape pretty well. This is almost the hardest part, so be patient, you'll get it.

Then do the tomato sauce and cheese and whatever else you want.

Now to bake a pizza there are two pieces of equipment you need. One is a 'peel', a wooden paddle. You 'build' the pizza on the peel, spreading out the dough, then putting on all the sauce and cheese and stuff. Before you put the dough down on the paddle, you sprinkle the paddle with a little cornmeal or breadcrumbs. When you finish building the pizza it should slide around a little on the cornmeal, it shouldn't be stuck to the peel.

The 'pizza stone' is a big flat ceramic thing that goes in your oven. You heat the oven up just as hot as it will go. 500 degrees. Wait until it is as hot as it gets! Then slide the pizza off the peel and onto the pizza stone.

Now when you put bread dough in the oven, dough that is properly risen, it rises a little more right away. In just the first few minutes in the oven the dough grows by about 10-20% from the air bubbles in the dough getting hot and expanding. This is called the 'spring'. It's one way you know you did it right. Don't be discouraged if you don't see this right away, it takes a little practice.

When the cheese is melted and bubbling your pizza is done. This takes 10-15 min. at the most! So don't go away. Slide the peel under the pizza and take it out of the oven.

And voila! Great pizza!

As I said, this requires some skills acquired by patient practice and trial and error, but once you've got it you'll be very happy with yourself. If you have friends over it really impresses them. 8^)

Answer 4

Crazy Crust Pizza Dough
"A quick and easy way to make your own pizza crust. Simply add the meat and vegetable toppings of your choice."

INGREDIENTS
* 1 cup all-purpose flour
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1 teaspoon dried oregano
* 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
* 2 eggs, lightly beaten
* 2/3 cup milk

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Lightly grease a rimmed pizza pan or baking sheet.
2. In a large bowl, stir together flour, salt, oregano and black pepper. Mix in eggs and milk; stir well. Pour batter into prepared pan and tilt until evenly coated. Arrange toppings of choice on top of batter.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, until crust is set.
4. Remove crust from oven. Drizzle on pizza sauce and sprinkle on cheese. Bake until cheese is melted, about 10 minutes.

Answer 5

Pizza Hut' style Pizza Dough


Tender AND chewy . This dough uses two leaveners to achieve that chain restaurant texture.

1 1/3 cup water
2 teaspoons sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons cornmeal
2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1 cup bread flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
3/8 teaspoon MSG
1 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast
(You may use all-purpose flour only for this recipe)

Bread machine: Add ingredients to machine bread pan in order given or as per manufacturer's instructions. Set to 'dough' mode.

Food processor:
Place water, sugar, salt and olive oil in bowl of food processor and pulse to dissolve sugar and salt. Add yeast, bread flour and all purpose flour. Process until a soft ball forms. Remove from machine and allow to rest, covered with a tea towel, about 45 minutes.

Dough hook:
Place water, sugar, salt and olive oil in bowl of mixer and dissolve sugar and salt. Stir in yeast, bread flour and all purpose flour and knead with dough hook to form a soft, but not-too sticky dough (about 8 minutes). Remove from machine and allow to rest, covered with a tea towel about 45 minutes.

By Hand:
In this case, use only all-purpose flour. Place water, sugar, salt and olive oil in bowl and dissolve sugar and salt. Stir in yeast, all purpose flour and knead to form a soft, but not-too sticky dough (about 8-l0 minutes). Allow to rest, covered with a tea towel about 45 minutes.

(*) For a breadier pizza dough - depending on taste and recipe requirements, you can add an additional 1/4 tsp. yeast.

Deflate dough very gently before using and allow it to rest a further 15 minutes before using in a recipe. You may refrigerate dough in an oiled plastic bag for up to two days.

Answer 6

Can you say PIZZA HUT?