Pizza Dough

Name: Pizza Dough
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 25 min
Yield: 3
Ingredients: 1 1/2 cups warm water; 1 packet active dry yeast (2 1/4 tsp); 1 tablespoon sugar; 1 teaspoon salt; 1/3 cup olive oil; 4 - 5 cups 00 flour (can also use all-purpose); 1/4 cup cornmeal (for sprinkling on the pan); Sauce, cheese, toppings of choice

by Natalie | The Kollee Kitchen

3 pizzas

25 min

I've been making pizza for a very, very long time and I consider myself somewhat of a pizza expert. It was tradition in my family to gather at my grandparent's house and make pizza every Christmas Eve. My Grandpa would always let the kids help - and later we would be rewarded with fresh-out-the-oven pizza. We must have made dozens of pizzas before the night was through! My love for pizza continued and throughout high school, I used to host "pizza making parties" and my group of friends would come over to roll dough and make pizza together. Even throughout university I made pizza, but since I was on my own it wasn't usually a classic pizza. I experimented with things like zucchini-crust pizza, cauliflower-crust pizza, and I even sometimes took the easy route and made pizza on a tortilla!

Fast forward several years, several disasters, several burnt pizzas, and several stuck-to-the-pan pizzas and I finally am confident enough to share everything I've learned about making the perfect homemade pizza. Everyone has their own opinion on what toppings make the perfect pizza, but one thing we can all agree on is it all starts with a great crust. And getting the perfect pizza crust is actually easier than you think! This dough is a dream; it rolls out so nice and easy so you don't spend time fighting with the dough, it doesn't stick to the pan, and it is less than 10 minutes of prep time!

All you need is water, yeast, sugar, salt, olive oil, and of course flour. Let's talk about flour for pizza dough; we like to use 00 pizza flour. If you're in Canada you can get this at any Loblaw store that sells PC products; you'll want to look for PC Black label 00 Pizza flour. The difference between all purpose and 00 flour is 00 flour is ground extra fine which helps make the pizza crust a bit chewier. If you only have all-purpose flour on-hand it will also work just fine in this recipe but I encourage you to try it with the 00 flour!

The dough recipe is enough to make 2 thick crust 12" pizzas, or if you prefer a thinner crust then you could divide the dough into 3. We usually do 3 pizzas with this dough. Depending on the season; we cook our pizza either on a barbecue stone or in the oven. The pizza pictured was done on the stone outside since it's still nice weather but I will include directions for both ways! When I cook inside I use a cookie sheet and get a "tray of pizza". We love to make lots pizza and freeze the leftovers for a quick dinner or lunch - they heat up really well if you reheat in the oven.

Pizza Dough

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Recipe details

Yield 3 pizzas
Time spent: Prep time: 10 Minutes Cook time: 15 Minutes Total time: 25 min

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Instructions

To make the dough:

In the bowl of your stand mixer with the dough hook attached, add warm water, yeast, and sugar, stir to combine. Wait 3-5 minutes for the yeast to bloom and rise to to the top
Once yeast has become foamy and is floating, add the salt and olive oil and give it a stir
Add the flour a cup at a time for the first 4 cups and mix on low after each addition until it is thoroughly incorporated
Add the remaining flour if needed about 1/4 cup at a time until dough is sticky but stays together. The goal is for the dough to be quite slack and sticky, but not stuck to the bowl. We usually use about 4 1/2 cups of flour but this can vary.
Transfer dough to an oiled bowl, cover with a kitchen towel and allow to rise 1 hour Cooking pizza on a barbecu

Cooking pizza on a barbecue stone:

On a heavily floured surface, tip dough out of bowl, punch down, and divide into two or three equal pieces
Preheat barbecue to medium-high (about 500 degrees F), then add stone and allow to heat for 10 minutes
While stone is preheating, roll dough out into a 12" circle. If you have a pizza paddle then dust paddle with a generous amount of cornmeal, and put the rolled dough on followed by sauce, cheese and toppings of your choice. If you don't have a pizza paddle then you will have to sprinkle the cornmeal on the stone, then assemble the pizza on the stone.
Once your pizza is on the stone, close the barbecue and cook pizza for 6 minutes, or until the bottom is crisped and the edges are starting to turn golden
Remove carefully and serve

Cooking pizza in the oven:

Preheat oven to 425 F, grease (we use olive oil for this) two or three 12" pizza pans and sprinkle cornmeal on top generously
On a heavily floured surface, tip dough out of bowl, punch down, and divide into two or three equal pieces
Roll out each piece of dough into 12" circles, transfer to prepared pans and top with sauce, cheese, and toppings of your choice.
Bake in preheated oven 15-20 minutes or until crust is golden brown

Comments

Pam on Oct 23, 2020

just a suggestion , if you don't have a pizza paddle , turn a large cookie sheet upside down and sprinkle with cornmeal, place dough on top of cornmeal and build your pizza, when ready slide your pizza off and onto the stone on BBQ or on stone in oven , you can even bake it on the upside down cookie sheet

7 Reply
- Natalie | The Kollee Kitchen on Oct 23, 2020
  
  What a great idea! Thank you!
  
  1
LorriLJ on Oct 27, 2020

Total time is 1hr25min. There is the hour long wait for the dough.

2 Reply
- Natalie | The Kollee Kitchen on Oct 27, 2020
  
  You are correct, of course, I don’t have an option to change total time when inputting my recipe though !
  
  1

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