Pizza Dough

Pizza is one of those comfort food dishes that we crave every now and then. It's something about all that wonderful gooey cheese, luscious toppings, and golden bread crust that makes you want it. The majority of the time Eric and I order delivery or dine out at at fancy pizza place, but indulge yourself once in awhile and make the pizza dough from scratch. This is my go-to pizza dough recipe whenever I feel like having homemade pizza at home. I haven't been fearful of making bread ever since I got the book "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day." Yeast no longer scares the daylights out of me and I'll make bread from scratch whenever the opportunity arises. (hehe)

Anyhow, Ina Garten made this beautiful White Pizza with Arugula and I loved the simplicity of the flavors. I loved the mixtures of cheeses and the peppery notes from the arugula. Making a great base to your pizza dough guarantees a nice crispy crust. I love a pizza crust that is chewy and soft and crispy from the exterior and this recipe is perfect for all of that. Get some toppings that you love and have a pizza party. Enjoy!

Pizza Dough
Adapted from Barefoot Contessa: Back to the Basics
Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups warm water (100 to 110 degrees)
4 1/2 teaspoons dry yeast or 2 packages
1 tablespoon honey
Good olive oil
4 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for kneading
salt

Preparation:

In the KA mixer bowl, add the water, yeast, honey and 3 tablespoons of olive oil with the dough hook. Make sure the yeast is dissolved and mix if needed. Add 3 cups of flour into the bowl and 2 teaspoons salt and mix on medium-low speed and let the dough come together, forming a ball of dough.

While the dough is mixing, slowly add the additional 1 cup of flour to make it soft and flexible. Let the dough knead on medium-low speed for 10 minutes until is elastic and smooth - add additional flour if needed to avoid it sticking to the bowl.

After the dough is ready, place the dough on your floured workspace and knead it by hand a couple dozen times. The texture should be smooth and elastic. Place the dough into a well-oiled bowl and roll the bowl around to make sure the olive oil coats the dough. Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel and allow the dough to rise at room temperature for 30 minutes.

When the dough is ready, place it back on your floured workspace and divide the dough into 6 equal pieces. Place them on a jelly roll sheet pan lined with parchment paper and cover it with a damp hot kitchen towel. Allow the dough to rest for 10 minutes. You can use it immediately, or place in the refrigerator for up to 4 hours.

When you're ready to make your pizza, grab a piece of pizza dough and roll into a circle using a rolling pin. Roll the dough and stretch it out to be at least 8 inches - it's almost like your own personal size pizza. Place on parchment-lined sheet pan and prepare another piece. Preheat the oven to 500 degrees (yes, it needs to be that hot and make sure your oven is clean). Add your toppings as you like. Bake the 2 pizzas for 10 to minutes, until the crusts are crisp and cheese are slightly brown. Enjoy!

Before: Ready for toppings

After: BBQ Chicken Pizza

Review: Making your homemade pizza dough is easy as pie only if you have a Kitchen-Aid mixer to do the majority of work for you. This pizza dough is foolproof to me, and I never have any problems with it. I made a nice selections of personal pizzas for Eric and me. I was trying to clean up the fridge, use stuff from the garden, test out my tomato sauce as pizza sauce and use inspiration from the CPK menu. The pizza when cooked is perfectly crispy and depending on how thin you roll it - it comes out pretty tasty. My BBQ Chicken pizza was delicious!