4 1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose
1 white flour
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup olive oil
2 package dry yeast
1 1/2 cup warm water
2 tsp light brown sugar
Directions
Measure 1/2 cup warm water (110 F) into 2 cup container and stir in
the brown sugar. (Make sure water is warm, not hot - too hot will
kill the yeast). Dissolve the 2 packages of dried yeast in the water
and set it aside for 5 minutes. Will become frothy. (about 2 cups
worth!)
Sift 4 cups of the flour and the salt into a large mixing bowl. Make
a depression in the middle of the flour and pour in 3/4 of the olive
oil and 1 cup of warm water. When the yeast is ready, add it also.
Dust your kneading surface with flour, then mix the ingredients in
the bowl with your hands. Place dough ball on the floured surface
and knead from 8 to 10 minutes. Add flour to the kneading surface if
the dough is too sticky or wet. Eventually the dough will become
elastic.
Rub the insides of a clean bowl with the remaining olive oil and
place the dough in it, coating the dough with olive oil by turning it
in the bowl. Cover with a clean cloth and let rise in warm,
draft-free place until double in size, 1 1/2 hours to 2 hours. An
oven with the light on or a lit burner pilot will provide suitable
heat for rising dough.
When dough has risen, divide into two halves, then roll each out on
floured surface. A round shape may be cut out with table knife using
12" bowl or plate as template.
Sufficient for 2 12" thin-crust pizzas, or 1 12" thick-crust.
HINT: Before filling and baking, form rim around outer ring of pizza
dough to hold ingredients better. Brush the inside area of the
dough, not the rim, with olive oil and let the dough sit in a warm
place and rise a little before filling. Then spoon in sauce, cover
with 1 lb. mozzarella cheese, add meat toppings, then cover with
mozzarella/parmesan mixture of cheese. Then brush rim of pizza crust
with olive oil. Sprinkle the pizza pan or oven tiles with cornmeal to
prevent pizza from sticking to cooking surface!
THE VERY BEST: Cook on a pizza stone or oven tile at 500 F. The
unglazed oven tile makes a huge difference in the crispiness and
texture of the crust. It absorbs moisture and keeps oven temperatures
even. May even be removed with pizza and set on a rack on table -
will keep pizza warm much longer.
Enjoy! - Jeff Duke
Servings: 4 servings
Basic Pizza Dough Recipe brought to you by Recipe Ideas
Categories: Bread; Breads; Italian; Pasta; Pizza
The History of Recipes
Written cooking instructions as a concept can be found way back into history, certainly as far back into recorded history as early Egypt, and possibly even further. Interesting though that is, in the main part, these early cook books were just very basic pictorial recipes for preparing food.
Fascinatingly, the oldest recipe found, according to historians is a series of ancient tablets in ancient Sumerian describing the making of bread which is then used to make a drink, quite possibly a form of beer as it is recorded as having made people feel blissful and exhilarated. Progressing into The time of the roman empire around 25BC a roman called Apicius compiled a few documents detailing recipes prepared by his fellow Romans. In his scrolls, he recounts how the meals were divided into hors d`oeuvre, main meal and desserts, a style of dining still practiced today. This early Roman chef recounts how the ancient chefs made use of a good variety of herbs and spices, including a few that will be familiar to modern chefs like bay, fennel and parsley. Over the following few centuries, the rich and powerful families of Europe competed to serve the most exotic meals, and as a result cooks and their recipes were much in demand. However, it wasn`t until the 19th century that fine cooking and recipe collections became popular. Mrs Isabella Beeton in the UK, and the equally famous Fannie Merritt Farmer in the USA, dedicated years of their lives to collecting, verifying, and publishing recipes that were common in the better off homes of the day. When we get to the 1900s, cookery publications are highly popular mostly as a result of increased literacy, more free time and having more money. The introduction of television gave us TV chefs and the recipe books that accompanied them. Which brings us neatly to the present day and the invention of computers and the internet, allowing us all to access thousands of recipes like the ones you can find on the site you are now reading. |
We hope you enjoy this Basic Pizza Dough recipe.
