Perfect Pizza Dough

This pizza dough really is perfect. It works out every time. I almost always serve pizza when we have a family over for a meal and I have never had a guest who DIDN'T say it was the best pizza crust they'd ever had. No lie. 

1 cup warm water
1 Tbsp yeast
1 tsp sugar or honey
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup oil (olive or canola)
2 1/2 cups flour (white or whole wheat or a combination of both)

Combine water, sugar and yeast. Let stand for 10 minutes. Then stir in rest of ingredients. Knead well. Let rest for about 15 minutes. Then spread into pizza pans. (This recipe makes enough for one of those Costco cookie sheets, or two round pizza pans.) Put your toppings on, and bake at 425*F for 20 minutes.

Whole wheat flour works just as well as white.

I also have made it as above, but instead of baking it, I wrap it in a big plastic bag and freeze it. Then it’s ready for a quick supper. I would just take it out of the freezer an hour or so before I want to top it. OR, I have made the dough, but after kneading it, I wrap it in plastic wrap and put it into a large Ziploc bag in a great big ball and freeze it that way. Then, I take it out a few hours before I want to bake a pizza, let the dough thaw, then knead it again and make the pizza as usual. It’s handy to do this if you always have pizza sauce in your pantry, and then you can actually shred the mozza cheese and put it in a small ziploc bag, and have your pepperoni or other meat in a small ziploc bag, and staple those two to the top of the big one with the dough in it. Then you’ve got a whole meal ready to go in your freezer. It’s handy to make a few “pizza kits” for your family to have on hand for a night when the main chef is gone, or if you want something quick and easy to bring to a family who needs it for whatever reason.

This dough is so versatile! I cannot say it enough. Not only can you experiment with the flour (using whatever proportions of white and whole wheat that suit you best), but you can have a THICK crust by pressing the dough into a smaller pan, or you can have a SUPER THIN crust by spreading the dough out thin in a larger pan. I have used the cookie sheet, but then used only about 3/4 of the dough to make a thin crust. You can then save the leftover dough in your freezer and accumulate extras until you have enough for one pizza. Or, you can make small personal pizzas by shaping the dough into rounds in whatever size you want. You just need to watch them when you’re baking them because oven times will vary.

Also, you can add herbs and spices to the dough, like garlic or basil, for example. I have yet to try adding cheese, but I’m sure it can be done!