Basic Pizza Dough

I love making homemade pizza but every time we would make it it seemed to be more trouble than it was worth.  One or more of a few things always happened, the dough stuck to the peel while transferring it to the oven, the cornmeal we used to stop it from sticking to the peel smoked up the whole house, the dough was too sticky or to tough ect.  After many attempts we discovered a few tips on how to make pizza night fun, easy, and delicious.  Stay tuned, I will post those after our next pizza night with pictures.  There are many dough recipes out there but we have found that this one gave us the most consistent results and was easy to stretch to the correct size.  I usually go for veggies and cheese while the rest of my house goes with meat toppings. What do you like on your homemade pizza?
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5 from 3 votes

Basic Pizza Dough

Course Breads and Doughs, Pasta and Pizza

Cuisine Game Day

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes minutes

Total Time 2 hours hours 30 minutes minutes

Servings 4 people, makes roughly 2 12 inch pizzas

Ingredients

• 3 cup flour all purpose, 2 and 3/4 for recipe the rest for dusting
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 2 teaspoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon active dry yeast
• 3 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil 2 for recipe 1 for the bowl
• 1 cup warm water 100 to 110 degrees *see notes below*
• parchment paper to cook pizza

Instructions

• Combine 2 and 3/4 cups of flour and salt in a large bowl. Make a well in the middle of the mixture and add the water. Sprinkle the sugar and yeast in the water. Let is sit for 5 to 10 minutes. You will begin to smell the yeast and the mixture will bubble a bit.
• After it rests add 2 tablespoons of olive oil and stir until it just starts to come together. Add the remaining flour to a flat surface such as your counter and dump the dough onto it. Knead it with your hands until it is smooth, at least 1 minute.
• Use the remaining oil to coat a large bowl, add the dough and cover with plastic wrap. Put it in a warm draft free space and let it rise for 2 hours.
• When you are ready to use it remove the dough and divide into 2 parts. On a lightly floured surface stretch the dough working with your hands into the desired shape.

Notes

Use a microwave safe bowl to heat the water.  Make sure it is between 100 and 110, use a thermometer.   Too low will not activate the yeast and too hot will kill it resulting in flat unraised dough.