Homemade Pizza Dough

I got this pretty fabulous book for my birthday this year: How to Cook Everything, by Mark Bittman.  If you're looking for a simple, but exhaustive cookbook bible; this book's for you.

I have already looked to this book several times.  This time I used his recipe for pizza dough.

I was really excited to use my stand mixer, but Mark also recommends using a food processor if you have that.

Pizza Dough

From How to Cook Everything

Ingredients

3 cups all purpose or bread flower, plus more as needed

2 tsp instant yeast

2 tsp salt

2 tbsp olive oil

1. Combine flour, yeast, and salt in a mixer or food processor. While machine is on add 1 cup of water and the oil.

2. Mix for 30 seconds, add water a little at a time until mixture forms a ball and is slightly sticky.

3. Turn dough out onto floured surface and knead by hand for a few seconds to form a smooth ball.  Put dough in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap.  Let rise until dough doubles in size, 1-2 hours.

4. When dough is ready, stretch it, top it, cook it, eat it!

Although the dough didn't rise as much as I anticipated, it had a nice stretch and held it's shape.

 This was my first time making pizza dough on my own, as well as my first time making the pizza from start to finish.  I usually get some assistance in the dough stretching portion.

I was pretty damn proud of the outcome here and would definitely go through the effort to make my own dough again.