Pizza Dough Perfected

I had previously posted about my homemade pizza.  While it was edible, we found the pizza dough very hard, chewy and not as good as we had hoped it would be.  I then read about my friend’s experiment with making pizza, and she recommended a pizza dough recipe, which was adapted from Bobby Flay’s recipe.  Everyone who tried making pizza dough from this recipe achieved successful results.  It looked easy enough to make and I was tempted.

I knew I had to try it.

Oh, plus…I wanted to try what pizza with artichoke hearts tasted like. Hehehe…

It was also the first time I made pizza with ground beef and turkey pepperoni 🙂

Well, on the whole, the pizza turned out really, really well.  The crust was not hard and chewy at all.  Instead it was a joy to bite into and it tasted extremely good with the toppings.  Of course, you can put whatever toppings you want on it.

I will definitely use this pizza dough recipe in future.

Pizza Dough (Yields 2 12-14inch pizza crusts)

Ingredients

• 3½ to 4 cups bread flour, plus more for rolling (Chef’s Note: Using bread flour will give you a much crisper crust. If you can’t find bread flour, you can substitute it with all-purpose flour which will give you a chewier crust.)
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 envelope instant dry yeast (which is about 2 tsps)
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1½ cups water, 110 degrees F
• 2 tablespoons olive oil, plus 2 teaspoons

Directions

1. Combine the bread flour, sugar, yeast and kosher salt in the bowl of a stand mixer and combine. While the mixer is running, add the water and 2 tablespoons of the oil and beat until the dough forms into a ball. If the dough is sticky, add additional flour, 1 tablespoon at a time, until the dough comes together in a solid ball. If the dough is too dry, add additional water, 1 tablespoon at a time. Scrape the dough onto a lightly floured surface and gently knead into a smooth, firm ball.
2. Grease a large bowl with the remaining 2 teaspoons olive oil, add the dough, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and put it in a warm area to let it double in size, about 1 hour.
3. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and divide it into 2 equal pieces. Cover each with a clean kitchen towel or plastic wrap and let them rest for 10 minutes.
4. Using fingers, roll and shape the dough out into a flattened piece of dough, which will be your pizza crust.  Add your toppings, and bake according to your preferred pizza recipe.