Pizza Dough

By Laura77

This is your basic dough for any Neapolitan-style pizza. Use all-purpose flour for a more authentic, cracker-like crust for your pizza. Bread flour will give the dough more of a chew. As with any yeast bread recipe, the exact amounts of flour, water and rising time are dependent on the day's weather. Follow your intuition.

Ingredients

• 1 (1/4-ounce) packet Active dry yeast
• pinch of sugar
• 1/4 cup Lukewarm (110°F) water
• 3 to 3 -1/2 cups Flour, bread or all-purpose
• 2 t Salt
• 1 to 1 -1/2 cups Lukewarm (110°F) water
• 2 T Olive oil

Preparation

Step 1

2 medium or 4 individual pizzas

By Hand:

Stir the yeast and sugar into the 1/4 cup warm water in a small bowl. Let set for about 10 minutes to activate the yeast.
Pour yeast mixture into a large bowl. Pour 1 cup of the flour in with the yeast and mix together well with a wooden spoon. Add another 2 cups of the flour and about 1/2 of the remaining water. Mix together with your hands until it all comes together. Add more water as you mix it to form a smooth dough, not too sticky but not too dry. Add more flour or water as needed to get a good consistency.
Remove to a lightly floured work surface and knead for another 8-10 minutes until smooth.
Form into a ball. Wipe a large bowl with a little olive oil, place the dough in the bowl and flip the dough over to cover it with oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a towel and place in a warm space to rise until doubled in size, anywhere from 1-3 hours.
Punch the dough down with your fists and knead it lightly for another 2-3 minutes. Cut the into 2 or 4 pieces and form each piece into a ball. Cover the balls lightly with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm spot until doubled again in size.
Roll out and use for any pizza recipe.

By Mixer with Dough Hook:

For Step 2 above, put all ingredients in the following order into the mixer bowl: yeast mixture, flour, water, salt, olive oil. Mix together for 8-10 minutes on medium speed until smooth. Add more flour or water as needed to get a good consistency.
Remove dough from mixer and knead by hand 1-2 minutes. Proceed with Step 4 above.

By Food Processor:

For Step 2 above, put all ingredients in the following order into the processor bowl: yeast mixture, flour, water, salt, olive oil. Pulse machine until dough comes together in a large ball. This happens quickly. Add more flour or water as needed to get a good consistency.
Remove dough from processor and knead by hand 1-2 minutes. Proceed with Step 4 above.

Variations:
Whole-wheat Pizza Dough: Substitute 1/4 cup of the regular flour with whole-wheat flour. You may have to add a little more water.
Herbed Pizza Dough: Add 1-2 tablespoons of chopped fresh herbs to the dough in Step 2 if you like: basil, oregano, parsley, rosemary.

Freeze the dough after it is portioned into balls for later use. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator and then set at room temperature to complete the second rise.