My pizza crust recipe
It took me a few tries to get this right, but in my opinion, this is really good pizza crust.
Yield: Makes 1 crust
Equipment needed
- Kitchen Aid stand mixer (unless you don't mind kneading by hand)
- Kitchen thermometer
- Pizza stone for baking (recommended)
- Wood pizza peel (recommended)
Ingredients
- 1 cup warm water
- 2 ¼ tsp active dry yeast
- ½ Tbsp sugar
- ¾ tsp salt
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- 3 cups bread flour (give or take ½ cup)
- Cornmeal (for baking)
Instructions
- Heat 1 cup water for 45 seconds in microwave (or until it reaches 110°)
- In a large mixing bowl, preferably that of a stand mixer, stir yeast and sugar into warm water. Sit for 5-10 minutes
- Pour in salt and oil. Add 1 cup flour and mix. Once that flour is incorporated, add 1 more cup until incorporated, mixing with your hands. Add a little more as needed. Dough should be sticky but not stick to your fingers.
- Knead in stand mixer for 6 minutes
- At this point you can freeze your dough if you don't want to use it now!
- Grease bowl with Pam or other oil. Cover with plastic wrap and let it rise 1-2 hours
- The longer the better for a fully risen crust
- You can also spray Pam inside a plastic bag, place the dough in it, and seal with a twist-tie (just like you'd get at the grocery store).
Notes:
- Makes only 1 crust (double/triple if you want more). To do multiple doughs, I set up 3 or 4 bowls in assembly-line fashion.
- You don't need to leave this at room temperature; it will rise in the refrigerator as well.
- Bread flour tastes better than all-purpose in my experience.
- Adjust sugar and salt to taste. I like this because it's a good balance between salty and sweet. Too much salt and you're grabbing for water in the middle of the night. Too sweet and it doesn't pair well with tomato sauce.
- Some recipes out there call for adding ¼ tsp garlic powder and ¼ tsp dried basil but I found it didn't change the flavor (though it looked appealing).
- To bake pizza, put pizza stone in middle rack of oven. Bring to 450°F. Before placing pizza in oven, spread 1-2 Tbsp of corneal on the surface of the stone.