What’s Cookin’ – Theresa’s Pizza Dough

I make a lot of homemade pizza in my house.  And a lot of homemade pizza dough.  Pizza dough is good for making Focaccia.  We’ve also used it to make our own bread sticks and cinna-sticks.  You can make pizza dough and freeze it or allow it to sit (or proof) in the refrigerator for several days.  It actually gets better with age, but if you do this, you may have to punch it down a few times.

I’ve experimented with many different recipes including yeast doughs and a non-yeast cracker type dough that emulates a St. Louis favorite pizza chain’s thin crust dough.

Recently, I read about using bread flour to help create a dough that gets a little more crusty and chewy than one using all-purpose flour.  What I’ve ended up doing is combining the features of two recipes to come up with my new go-to pizza dough recipe.  One other reason to love this dough is that it makes enough for 3 12-inch pizzas (or Focaccia, bread sticks, or cinna-sticks).

Theresa’s Pizza Dough ingredients – notice the bread flour.

Put 2 1/4 tsp of yeast into 1 3/4 cups of warm water.  Let sit for 5 minutes until nice and bubbly.

I run the tap water until it’s very warm, fill the measuring cup, add the yeast, and let it sit and work its magic.  I never take the temperature of the water, and I never have any trouble with my yeast.

Pour the yeast mixture into the bowl of your mixer.  Add the flour, olive oil, salt, and sugar.  Mix on low until blended.  This will take 1 to 2 minutes, and you may have to scrape down the sides of the bowl a few times.

Using the dough hook, knead the dough on medium for 10 minutes.  The dough will become smooth and elastic.

This dough may be a little tacky.  If it’s too tacky, turn out onto your countertop and gently knead in a little more flour.

Put your dough ball into a greased bowl and turn to coat all sides.  Cover and place in a warm spot until doubled in size.  This will take about 1 1/2 hours.

After the dough has risen, you get to punch it down.  As you can see, by the time I took the picture the dough was already deflating.

Divide the dough ball into three equal portions.  At this point you can use it immediately, return it to the refrigerator for several days, or wrap it in an airtight container and freeze for up to several weeks.

Here are some links to some of our favorite ways to use pizza dough: Garlic Shrimp Pizza, Bacon Cheeseburger Pizza, and Focaccia Bread.  I made an Alsatian Pizza recently that I will be posting soon, too!