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
Recipes as a concept can be observed back into the distant past, in truth as far back as pharonic Egypt, and potentially, even further back. In practice though, sadly, these early records were just very basic pictorial recipes for food preparation.
Moving our culinary historical trip onwards, we have some interesting books which were published in the fourteenth century : a book titled `Forme of Cury`, and another, similary called `Curye on Inglish`. The titles are a little misleading though, these books are nothing to do with the indian food that is served today, but rather descriptions of the types of food eaten by the rich and wealthy people of the time. When we get to the 1900s, cooking publications were greatly in demand as a result of more people being able to read, people having increased leisure time and a general increase in wealth. |
We hope you enjoy this Basic Pizza Dough recipe.
