Homemade Pizza Dough

We recently discovered the awesomeness that is homemade pizza dough. The older I get, the more I seem to be able to taste all of the preservatives and other seven-syllable-ingredients rampant in processed food. We've used Boboli crusts with bottled tomato sauce for years, but after tasting this dough? Never again. It's so easy to make, and it's infinitely more delicious than either the pre-prepared crusts or the stale cardboard put out by your local delivery joint.

There are a bunch of recipes for homemade pizza dough out there, and I've heard great things about the Pioneer Woman's recipe, but we used the following. It made enough for two pizza crusts, each of which serve 3-4 adults. We froze our second one, and it was a nice little treat a few weeks after we made the initial recipe.

Thin Crust Pizza Dough
adapted from Pizza and Other Savory Pies by Brigit Binns

3 1/3 cups all purpose flour, plus extra for dusting
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 package (2 1/2 tsp) quick-rise yeast
1 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp salt
1 1/4 cups warm water (approximately 110 degrees), plus extra as needed
2 Tbsp olive oil, plus extra as needed

In a food processor, combine both flours, the yeast, the sugar, and the salt. Pulse to mix ingredients. With the motor running, add the water and olive oil in a steady stream, and then pulse until the dough comes together in a rough mass, approximately 12-15 seconds. If the dough does not form into a ball, sprinkle with 1-2 teaspoons of water and pulse again until a mass forms. Let the dough rest for 5-10 minutes, and then process again for 25-30 seconds. The dough should be tacky to the touch, but not sticky.

Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface and form it into a smooth ball. Place the dough in a large oiled bowl, turn to coat with oil, and cover with plastic wrap. Let the dough rise in a warm place (e.g., on the kitchen counter) until doubled in bulk and spongy, about 1 1/2 hours.

Afterward, put the dough on a lightly floured work surface, punch it down, and shape it into a smooth cylinder. Divide the dough into 2 equal pieces. Shape each piece into a smooth ball, dusting with flour only if the dough becomes sticky. Cover both balls with a clean kitchen towel and let rest for 10 minutes before proceeding with your chosen pizza recipe. If you are using only one ball of dough, place the second ball in a gallon size Ziploc bag and freeze it for up to 2 months. When ready to use, thaw the frozen dough for 3-4 hours at room temperature. (I let our frozen dough thaw in the fridge all day while I was at work, and that worked fine too.)

We topped our pie with some homemade sauce (also infinitely better than the store bought variety and super easy to make in a big batch and then freeze for future use), shredded mozzarella, a few slices of fresh mozzarella, and a large sliced tomato. The original recipe calls for baking the pizza at 450 degrees for 8-10 minutes, but we found that with the sliced tomato topping it takes more like 10-14 minutes to get the crust cooked all the way through and slightly crispy on the bottom.

After we pulled it out of the oven, we added some shredded prosciutto and fresh basil and then uncorked a nice bottle of red.

Buon Appetito!