I love to bake bread. I make bread and pizza dough all the time. I wanted to share with you all my recipe for pizza dough. Back by popular demand and inclusion in Carnival of the Recipes.
First, you need a stand mixer. I have a 5 quart Kitchen-Aid, but any stand mixer with a dough hook will do.
Also, you should use Unbleached Bread Flour. Bread flour works best because of the high protein content leads to good gluten to give the dough it's trademark chewey texture like good pizza has.
1 1/8 cup hot water
1 T sugar
1 T Honey
1 1/2 T dry yeast
1 T Extra Virgin Olive Oil
3 C Flour
1 t salt
Combine water, sugar, honey, and yeast in bowl, and mix with fork for 10 seconds. Let stand 10 minutes till it starts to foam (yeast starting to work).
Add 1 cup of flour and beat with the flat mixer for 1 minute. Add the rest of the flour 1/2 cup at a time, beating for 30 seconds before adding more flour. Add Olive Oil and salt when you add the last of the flour.
Beat with the dough hook for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes pick a piece of the flour off and stretch to see if it streches thin enough to see through. This is called a baker's pane, and is a good indication you have worked the gluten enough.
Let rise for 1 hour, or until doubled. Punch down, and let rise another 30 minutes.
Use the dough for pizza, flatbread, stomboli, calzones, or whatever need you see fit. You can freeze the extra dough, but be sure to bring to room temperature before you use again.
Enjoy!!
