everydaymatters: Pizza Dough

I finally perfected the pizza dough! Thank goodness. I was beginning to wonder what was wrong with me! I was following the recipe, but the dough was too powdery for us, it wasn't soft and easy to spread like I had imagined pizza dough to be, but it is now! If you have a KitchenAid Stand Mixer, this recipe came in your book. If not, I'm really not sure how to adapt this for making it without. I would guess that you just do the same thing, but knead it longer with your hands. Sorry. There isn't really any point for me to try it the hard way though, since I don't have to. :)

Crusty Pizza Dough
1 package active dry yeast
1 cup warm water (105° to 115°)
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons olive oil
2 1/2 - 3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon cornmeal

Dissolve yeast in warm water in warmed mixer bowl. Add salt, olive oil, and 2 1/2 cups flour. Attach bowl and dough hook to mixer. Turn to speed 2 and mix about 1 minute.

Continuing on speed 2, add remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, and mix about 1 1/2 minutes, or until dough starts to clean sides of bowl. Knead on speed 2 about 2 minutes longer.

Place dough in greased bowl, turning to grease top. Cover. Let rise in warm place, free from draft, about 1 hour, or until doubled in bulk. Punch dough down.

Brush 14-inch pizza pan with oil. Sprinkle with cornmeal. Press dough across bottom of pan, forming a collar around edge to hold toppings. Add toppings, as desired. Bake at 450° for 15 to 20 minutes.

Yield: 4 servings (1/4 pizza per serving)

Per serving: About 373 cal, 11g pro, 74g carb, 3 g fat, 0mg chol, 271mg sodium.

My thoughts: Good luck eating a full serving. This stuff is so filling. Dissolving the yeast at the very beginning can take up to around five minutes, I didn't realize it would take that long. Also, I don't have a kitchen thermometer, or a regular one for that matter, but I set the faucet handle to midway between hot and warm, where I'm still able to hold my hand under it without it hurting, and use that as my warm water. I have no idea if that's between 105° and 115°, but it works for me. What was super confusing to me was the "2 1/2 - 3 1/2 cups flour". I didn't know if I was supposed to use 2 1/2 and then add another 3 1/2 cups, or if I started with 2 1/2 and added one more cup to equal 3 1/2. What I did the first two times I made it was put the 2 1/2 in at the beginning and added the last cup while it was mixing. This time (the time I did it right) I only added 1/2 after I put in the initial 2 1/2 cups, making it total only 3 cups of flour instead of 3 1/2, and it was perfect. This may depend on your altitude and humidity also. I end up kneading this for much longer than two minutes. From start to finish I don't turn the mixer off, and it runs for about ten minutes. I'd say the actual kneading time is about six or seven minutes. All of these times may be different because of the dryness of my house, too. If you're going to try this recipe, don't use mine as the law. Adjust it so it works best for you. And when it says "punch dough down", thats literal. I didn't realize that I actually got to punch the dough. So have fun.

ETA 1/27/11: Even though I thought I had it perfected back in 2009, I was wrong. I'm still learning my way around pizza dough. One thing I do know, yeast is temperamental. I got an awesome rolling pin as a wedding gift, so now when I made pizza, I use one recipe of dough for two pizzas. Once it's done rising I use my dough cutter (you can use a knife, same thing) and cut the ball in half. These make way thinner pizzas, but we like them better that way.

This is what the yeast looks like in the water before it dissolves.