Classic Pizza Dough

By mitzzy

Did you know you can make and dress your pizzas ahead of time, refrigerate them and bake off when needed? Or bake them on a BBQ grill. Oh the possibilities! Bon appetito!

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups warm water
• 2 1/2 teaspoons dry yeast
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon semolina or cornmeal
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 - 3 cups bread flour

Details

Servings 3

Preparation

Step 1

Olive oil for pizza pans

Grease three 9 inch pizza pans with 1 tablespoon olive oil. Set aside.

For the dough, in the bowl of an electric mixer, hand whisk the water and yeast and let stand 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in the sugar, salt, oil semolina, all-purpose flour and 2 cups of bread flour and mix to make a soft mass. Knead with the dough hook on the slowest speed of the mixer, dusting in additional flour as required to form a soft, elastic dough, about 5 to 8 minutes. Form dough into a ball and place in a lightly greased bowl. Insert bowl into a large plastic bag and let rise until almost doubled, about 30 to 45 minutes.

Gently deflate the dough, reinsert into plastic bag, and allow to rest an additional 15 minutes.

Gently deflate the dough. Press or roll out dough to fit prepared pizza pans.

If dough resists or otherwise retracts, let it rest for a few minutes, then gently coax it to fit pan. Drizzle a little bit of olive oil on top of dough. Spread on tomato sauce and topping of your choice

Preheat oven to 425 F. Bake 15 minutes, and then reduce heat to 400 F. Bake another 15 - 20 minutes until cheese is melted and lightly brown.

Makes three 9 inch pizzas