Who doesn’t love pizza? Well, we have made hundreds of homemade pizzas and experimented with flours, yeasts, and doughs. Here is a simple, easy recipe for home-made pizza that includes the crust. It’s so good that it will make you famous.
Ingredients for the Crust
- 1 package (7 g.) of active dry yeast
- 1 ¼ cup warm water
- Tiny pinch of sugar or honey
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- Pinch of salt
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
How to Make the Pizza Crust
- First, turn your oven on to warm setting. If you’re using a wood fired oven, make sure to choose a firewood that will complement your tastes.
- Then, to your cup of very warm water, add a tiny pinch of sugar or honey. But make sure that the water is not so hot that it kills the yeast.
- Add a package of yeast. Yeast is alive, so a taste of sugar or honey will make it happy. And happy yeast rises.
- Stir the yeast, water, and sugar mixture enough to get everything wet.
- Let the mixture sit for a minute. In a large mixing bowl, add this mixture to your flour. Then, add a pinch of salt.
- Stir the mixture with a fork or spoon until it starts to clump together. Then, get your hands in there and start kneading. Mashing the mixture down constantly, and fold it for a minute or two. Do this until it starts to get rubbery. Add enough warm water to keep the mixture moist and sticky, not overly dry.
- Turn off the oven.
- Now, form the dough into a ball. Then, rub a tablespoon of olive oil over it to moisten the surface.
- Place the ball of dough back into mixing bowl. Cover it with a towel. Then, place it into the warm oven for a ½ hour or longer, until it doubles in size. The time will depend on how happy your yeast is.
Assembling Your “Special” Pizza
- Prepare your toppings while the dough is still rising. You can use tomato sauce with garlic, cheddar cheese, mushrooms, olives, and chopped green peppers, but the sky’s the limit.
- After the dough has risen, punch it down and spread it onto your lightly greased pizza pan. Whether you use a square pan or a round one, it doesn’t matter.
- Then, preheat your oven to 450 degrees. If you like a thin crust, then you may have enough dough for two pizzas. You can even freeze dough to make a quick pizza some other time.
- Spread tomato sauce, cheese, and all your ingredients onto the dough. Sprinkle Italian herbs to taste. Then, slide the dough into your preheated oven for 15-20 minutes. Voila! Wasn’t that an easy pizza recipe?
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