Pizza Dough Recipe

Coming up with a dinner recipe has always been a struggle, I have no imagination when it comes to cooking, fortunately there are thousands of recipes out there I can try that a fairly easy to make and don't require too many ingredients.


I rely almost exclusively on Pinterest to find a good dinner recipe and I want to share my experiences trying recipes from Pinterest and other sites.


For a Saturday night I decided to make my own pizza, and found this easy to make pizza dough recipe in a Cuisinart cook book and decided to give it a shot, and I must say I was not disappointed.

You will need an electric mixer with dough hook, or you can always use your hands

Mixing bowls
Pizza stone or tray


Pizza Dough

Makes 1/2 lbs of dough, enough for two 12 inch crusts

1 cup warm water

1 1/2 teaspoons of granulated sugar

2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast

3 cups bread or all purpose flour, plus additional for dusting

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Toppings

Pizza sauce
 (I like Ragu brand, 28 oz is more than enough)
Mozzarella cheese as desire,
(I usually use about 2 cups of cheese per pizza)
Pepperoni
Onions
Bacon
Other toppings of your choice

Preheat your over at 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Stir together the warm water, sugar and yeast in a missing bowl and let stand until the mixture is foamy and bubbly, about 5 to 10 minutes.

While the yeast is proofing, combine the flour and salt in a separate bowl.

Once the yeast is foamy, add it to the flour and salt mixture, next add the olive oil and mix in an electric mixer on speed 3 using a dough hook, or mix by hand until dough comes together as a ball.

Once dough ball forms, continue to knead on speed 3 for about 4 minutes, or do it by hand. Dough should be smooth and spring back to the touch. If sticky, add 1 tablespoon of flour at a time until smooth. Alternatively, if dough seems to dry, add 1 tablespoon of water at a time.


Cover the bowl with a plastic wrap and let rise in a warm, draft free place until double in volume, about 1 hour.


Place dough on a slightly flour surface and form into desire crust size. Place on pizza stone or tray.


Top your uncooked pizza dough with about 8 oz of pizza sauce, more if desired, add cheese and peperoni and cook for about 13 minutes at 425 degrees Fahrenheit.

If you are using bacon, chop and cook it before adding it to pizza.