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Monday, January 23, 2012

{Just your basic} Pizza Dough

Hi again all!!
 It's your resident "I-have-little-to-no-clue-what-I-am-doing-EVER" baker here with another screw-up free recipe to tuck in your arsenal.  
Making something homemade for dinner always makes people feel specal that you put a lot of love into the food they are eating.  The good news is that a lot of love does not have to cost a lot of time or money!
Case in point?
This pizza dough recipe with just five ingredients.
{Although I contest "water" as an ingredient is stretching it really}
This basic dough allows most of your time spent sitting on your butt getting lots of other chores done while waiting for it to rise, and may just be your new favorite thing to make for dinner.
Bonus that it'll make those who eat it feel especially loved!

{Just your basic} Pizza Dough
- 2 cups AP flour
- 1 tsp. active dry yeast
- 2/3 cup warm water {110-115 degree F}***
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. sugar or honey to "feed" your yeast

{Makes one 12" or two 9" Pizza Crusts}

Directions:
1. Add your 1 tsp. yeast to the 2/3 cup of warm water and let it sit until it turns creamy
{approximately 1 minute or so}
and then stir the yeast into the water until it dissolves:
{Gorgeous!}
2. Put your two cups of AP Flour and the salt and sugar into a glass bowl, or the bowl of a mixer:
{Just like so!}
3. Now pour the warmed yeast/water mixture into the bowl with the flour/salt/sugar mixture and stir until just combined:

{ACTION Shot!}
4. After mixing for a bit, the dough will still be kinda crumb-y {NOT to be mistaken with crummy, it is delicious!}and you will need to turn the dough out onto a well-floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, adding more flour if it is too sticky:
{Lookin' crumb-y}
{post knead}
5. Cover this dough-baby up and place it in a draft-free warm space for about 1.5 hours to rise*** 
I use my unheated {do not pre-heat for the rise} oven because my house is almost never warm or draft-free!
{coat a bowl with olive oil for non-stick rising}
{Warm & draft-free...kinda like a snuggle for your dough!}
6. Just 90 minutes later {or after a bag of Pretzel M&M's and this week's episode of the The Bachelor on DVR} grab that beautifully risen dough, and divide it into as many pizzas as you intend to make.
We were making four lovely little pizzas, hence:
{four times the doughy cuteness}
7. Cover those back up, pop 'em back into your "warm-draft-free-space" {oven!} and let them rise an additional 60 minutes***. This is when you will clean both of your bathrooms...or alternately catch an episode of "Downton Abbey"...it's on PBS and will thus balance out your aforementioned "Bachelor" addiction.
{all puffed up!}
8. Final step people! Grab those little dough-babies {and your significant other} for some rolling action.
Roll each pizza crust out and add your toppings! 
{Husbands are sure cute when they work for their supper!}
{The couple that tops together...wait??}
9. Bake at 400-degrees for 10-13 minutes {oven times and temps vary} and enjoy with some salad, a glass of wine, or a slice of cake!

Feelin' the Love yet?!?

***HIGH ALTITUDE NOTES***
Flour tends to be drier at high elevation, so increase the amount of water in the recipe by 2 to 3 tablespoons for each cup of flour called for at 5,000 feet, and by 3 to 4 tablespoons at 7,000 ft.
Also, yeast works FASTER in high altitude, so perhaps check your rise more frequently- at approximately 60 minutes on the first rise and about 45 minutes on the second.
Final suggestion is to bake these pizza crusts immediately after making rather than putting them in the fridge like those sea-level folks may do!

4 comments:

  1. I love your entertaining writing and beautiful pictures, Kelly! Thanks for sharing your recipe for pizza dough. I will be trying this recipe during this week. We love our pizza! And making bread is sooo rewarding!

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  2. Wow,your pizza crust recipe looks great! I love pizza that has a great crust... It really is all about the crust!!! Love the photo captions, too!

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Debbie! I have not found a crust I like as much as this one- and bonus that you can do thin or thick crust with it!

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  3. I 've made pizza before...never thought to make individual pizzas! Duh! That way everyone can have their own topping...does retirement help your thinking processes?

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