Best Pizza Crust

I have tried many recipes for pizza crust, but this one is my favorite! Of course you can buy a bag of dough at Trader Joe’s and there’s no shame, we have all done it. This dough can be put together before you get to the store and back, and for a fraction of the cost. Here is where the original recipe is from: california-pizza-kitchen-pizza-dough

I altered this recipe a bit to make it as simple as possible, which means the least amount of dishes! So here goes.

Ingredients:

1½ tsp active dry yeast

¾ cup warm water (110F)

2 - 2 ¼ cups bread flour

3 tsp sugar

3 tsp salt

3 tsp olive oil plus a little more to coat the dough

Directions:

Dissolve the yeast in the water and let it proof (which means put the yeast and water in the same bowl and let them hang out for 5-10 minutes). This process is to see if the yeast activated, if it is it will have little bubbles form on top. If it didn’t activate you need to try again. If the water is to hot it will kill the yeast and if it is to cold nothing will happen. I buy my yeast in bulk at Costco and store it in the fridge. It lasts a long time and I always have extra to try again.

Yeast and water having a party with bubbles

Add the sugar and salt to the yeast bowl and mix. Then, slowly add the flour and the oil. After adding the second cup of flour, I get my hands in it and mix, then knead it for about 5 min on a lightly floured surface.

Some nights I get help and my 10 year old will knead the dough. The more you get you kids involved in cooking the more they are willing to try new foods and it’s just plain productive fun!

If the dough is too wet add a little flour. Too dry add a little warm water. This just takes practice but the dough should feel smooth but still a little tacky. Some days, I think, “man this dough feels great” and other days I think, “what happened?” but either way, the end results are always tasty.

Dough with one cup of flour

Lightly coat the dough with oil, cover it (I use a damp dish towel) and let it rise. Rise time I like it to rise for two hours but I have let it rise for only an hour and it was okay. The best is when I am organized and make the dough that morning or the night before. If I have the time, I let it rise at room temp covered for 2 hours, punch it down, then I put it in an airtight container and stick it in the fridge. About 2 hours before you are going to eat take it out of the fridge punch it down and let it come to room temp.

This is the dough before it did its rising. Not the best picture I know.

I like to bake it on my pizza stone at 450 degrees. It cooks very quickly and time will vary depending on the thickness of your crust. I always tell people, if it looks like you want to eat it it’s probably done. Very scientific I know, but it works.

Make sure to check out my bread science post. It is a very basic explanation of what does what in bread.