Making Your Own Pizza Dough

Make your own pizza dough

Making your own pizza at home feels a bit hipster to me.

But, to be honest, I’ve been making my own dough for pizza for several decades now.  That’s hardly a hipster thing now, is it?

A word of caution: If you are looking for a simple recipe for good at-home pizza dough, then I’ve got a great one for you.  If you’re looking for hip ingredients or trendy “hacks” you may have to look elsewhere.

I say that as a caution.  To create the “perfect” pizza oven at home, there are a lot more steps involved in the process.  I say leave the pepperoni pizza making to the local pizza slingers, because they have the set-up and experience to produce a great pie over any home version I’ve ever tasted.

It’s better for you to reserve your pizza making skills for something that’s special or just “you”.  For example, when I get in the mood for homemade pizza, all I want is a super messy ricotta and cheese calzone, which is hard to find around these parts…especially the way I make it, naturally!

So here’s my basic pizza dough recipe, which can be used for both pizza or calzone making. I usually make two batches–not a double batch, two separate batches at the same time.  One batch will make two large pizza or two full half moon calzones.

Pizza Dough Ingredients:

• 2 cups flour (I always use King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour)
• 1 and 1/4 teaspoons of instant yeast
• Three quarters of a teaspoon of salt
• 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
• 3/4 cup lukewarm water

 

Directions for making basic pizza dough:

1. Combine all but 1 tablespoon olive oil in a bowl and mix.
2. Mix and knead lightly to form a soft, smooth dough ball.  Do not over knead or your dough will be tough.
3. Lightly grease a bowl with the remaining olive oil and turn your dough ball around in the oil to coat thoroughly.
4. Cover the bowl using plastic wrap and a towel and allow to rise until about twice it’s size, which will probably take about 2 1/2 hours in a normal kitchen.  You can tell it has risen enough when two finger pokes made in the dough don’t fill back in.
5. Turn the dough out to your workspace and gently deflate it.  Knead it a bit to make a smooth, flexible dough.  Divide the dough into two equal sized dough balls.
6. At this point, you can either freeze your dough for later use or use it to make your own pizza or calzone.

 

You can tell the dough has risen enough when you poke the dough and the holes don’t fill in