Pizza Dough

Homemade pizza with caramelized onions and sauteed cremini mushrooms

In my opinion, pizza dough has to have the perfect blend of crispy and chewy.  Here is a recipe that I've worked out that I like.

1 (1/4 oz) packet active dry yeast
1.5 tsp sugar
1 cup warm water
1.5 cups all-purpose flour
1.5 cups bread flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pizza seasoning (optional - I like Frontier brand or use any herbs you like)
1 Tb olive oil

Add the sugar and yeast to the warm water and let sit for 10 minutes. 

In a large bowl, mix the all-purpose flour, bread flour, salt, and pizza seasoning.  Add the water mixture to the flour mixture and stir with a wooden spoon until it comes together.  Flour a clean surface and knead the dough for a few minutes until it is smooth and elastic.

Wash the  bowl and dry and coat with the oil.  Add the dough, cover with plastic wrap and let rest in a warm spot for 1 hour.  I turn the oven on to 200 F briefly and then turn it off to create a warm space in winter. After 1 hour punch down the dough and give it a light knead in the bowl.  Let rest for at least another hour or longer.  If you don't get to it that day, you can get away with refrigerating your dough and using it the next day.

Makes 1 large pizza crust.

Pizza tips: Use a pizza screen for a nice crispy crust.  You can get them on Amazon and they are inexpensive.  Just make sure you get a size that will fit in your oven.  I bake pizza at 480 F with convection on and it is done in 9 minutes.  Basically you want the oven as hot as you can get it.