It has become a family tradition to have pizza once a week, usually on Friday night. Since the stay-at-home orders started, I have been making pizza at home.
I must admit that it was a rough start for making my own dough from scratch. My first attempt was fine but too crunchy. My second attempt was better; I thought it was very good. After that, I finally figured out what the rest of my family really liked, especially my daughter. It turns out my daughter really likes a thick crust that is very “cake” or bread-like. So, I use the entire amount of the dough to make one half-sheet size crust instead of making two thinner crust pizzas.
While this dough is not the same as the Chef Boyardee or Martha White pizza mixes my mom used to make 🙂 , I do like to make it so that the dough is still rather sticky and rough on the surface after kneading compared to doughs for rolls, bread, or even other pizza doughs.
Home-style Pizza Crust
Ingredients
- 2 packages or 5 tsp. fast-rise, instant (SAF), or active dry yeast
- 4 1/2 to 5 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
- 2 Tbsp. (scant) granulated sugar
- 2 tsp. salt
- 2 c. warm water (120-ish degrees F if using instant yeast; 110-ish degrees F if using active yeast)
- 1/4 c. + olive oil
Instructions
If using active dry yeast, add 1/2 c. warm water, the yeast, and 2 tsp. sugar to a mixing bowl. After about 5 to 10 minutes, the yeast mixture should be foamy. You will reduce the amount of water and sugar used in the recipe by these amounts.
- Place 3 cups of flour in the mixing bowl.
- Add yeast (f using fast-rise or instant) and sugar atop flour on one side of the bowl.
- Add salt on the opposite side of the bowl.
- Using the dough hook of the stand mixer (or by hand), combine the dry ingredients.
- Slowly add olive oil in the warm water making sure the correct temperature is maintained. 120 F for fast-rising, 110 F for active/SAF
- Mix on medium speed for about 2 minutes.
- Remove from mixer and add an additional cup of flour mixing by hand.
- Measure out the 5th cup of flour and use part of it to heavily cover the surface to knead the dough.
- Scape out the dough from the bowl into the middle of your floured surface. Sprinkle more of the flour on top of the dough.
- Start folding over the dough by hand to incorporate more flour. (Coating your hands with olive oil makes this much easier).
- Keep adding additional flour to the kneading surface/dough until the dough is only slightly sticky. You may need to add part of the 6th cup of flour depending on the humidity, flour, etc.
- Knead the dough 3 or so minutes. The surface of the dough will not be totally smooth.
- Shape the dough into a ball.
- Coat the inside of the mixing bowl with olive oil.
- Place the ball of dough in the bowl, rotating it to coat it lightly in oil. The top of the dough ball should face the opening of the bowl before covering the bowl with a piece of plastic wrap that has been sprayed with oil or another non-stick cooking spray.
- Let rise until doubled in volume, about 30 minutes or less. Fast-rising yeast will take significantly less time.
- Punch dough down to release most of the air.
- Divide dough in half, if desired. Freeze half in a plastic freezer bag, if not using it immediately.
- Lightly coat a baking sheet or pizza sheet bottom with oil.
- Place dough in the middle of the sheet and gradually spread it out evenly to the edges of the pan.
- Allow dough to rest a few minutes and then spread it again if it keeps contracting or if it does not stay at the edges.
- (The dough will pull away from the sides a little as it bakes).
- If desired, coat with a small amount of olive oil before adding the sauce. Some people think this
- Add tomato sauce as desired.
- Bake in a preheated 425 degree F. oven until crust is starting to lightly brown. It should be about 8 to 10 minutes for a thick crust.
- Remove and add cheese and additional toppings as desired.
- Bake at 450 degrees until cheese is melted as desired and the crust is fully baked.
Notes
This dough is a large part of the reason that I have now purchased King Authur flour (not sponsored) in 25-pound bags…even though I started with more than 25 pounds of flour before not eating out. I guess I should say that my family’s love of this dough is now one of the reasons I am now using so much all-purpose flour. It is so easy to freeze flour to extend its freshness and life. I usually just place the whole bag in a 2-gallon freezer bag. With a large bag of flour, it is easy just to fill the bag with the desired amount of flour and freeze it. I just bring it up to room temperature before using…unless I am making a pastry dough, then it is ideal to use it frozen.