Best Pizza Dough Recipe
fromjustapinch.comwww.justapinch.com/recipes/main-course/italian/best-pizza-dough-recipe.html
I call it the best pizza dough recipe simply because I've been messing with pizza dough recipes for a few years now, and this is my best so far. It has taken quite a lot of trial and error with different flours; all-purpose, bread-flour, whole wheat, unbleached...even cake flower. I also have been trading out ratios for yeast and rise times, even messing with how much to kneed...or not to kneed. (that is the question!!!) The pictures in this post are of a BBQ chicken pizza I made. I also made a yummy alfredo chicken garlic pizza as well.
Ingredients
Instructions
In a large mixing bowl combine flour, salt, yeast and sugar.
Add water and 2 Tablespoons of the olive oil and mix together with hands. (if you use a stand mixer instead of doing it by hand be sure to grease the paddle of the stand mixer.)
Kneed with hands until it makes a smooth ball. Side note: If dough is too stiff and breaks apart easy add one Tablespoon of water until it lets up. Or if it is too sticky and won't form a smooth ball add one tablespoon of flour at a time until it behaves.
Dust a clean counter surface with flour and turn dough out onto the counter.
Kneed dough for about 5 minutes to get the gluten acting all elastic-like! You have to kneed until the dough is not the least bit sticky and is flexible enough to be pulled thinly. If you hold the dough up to the kitchen light you should be able to pull the dough until it is so thin you can see the light through the dough. That's when you know it is perfect. Beware you can over kneed dough... in which case I say enjoy your yeast rolls, because if you over kneed it to the point the gluten is so taunt that it starts to tear easy when stretched yeast rolls are one of the only options for not wasting the dough.
Grease a large mixing bowl with remaining 2 Tablespoons of olive oil and place dough ball in bowl and cover with a clean cloth.
Allow pizza dough to sit in bowl for 2 hours where it will almost double in size.
Remove dough from bowl and turn back out onto a floured counter top. Cut dough ball equally in half.
You now have two dough chunks ready to be tossed into 14 inch pizzas!!! :-D
