Homemade Pizza Dough: A Classic Margherita Pizza

Remem­ber how I men­tioned that Pizza also makes reg­u­lar appear­ances at our house?  Mike & the kids would lit­er­ally be unable to func­tion if we didn’t have pizza. I also might melt into a ball of despair,  I mean what is a world with­out pizza? And while we could just do the $5 piz­zas (I guess) we like to mix it up with a home­made pizza.  Home­made pizza dough, home­made mari­nara & lots of love in every bite.  Noth­ing beats it.  It’s also very sim­ple to make.  I dou­ble the recipe, make a few large piz­zas, & use sauce I’ve saved from when I make my Mari­nara Sauce.  One night of the week would be pasta with mari­nara & another night home­made pizza. It is sim­ple, rus­tic & so good!  Since I’ve already shared the home­made Mari­nara Sauce recipe I decided to share the Home­made Pizza Dough recipe.

What You Need:

1 (.25 ounce) pack­age active dry yeast

1 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)

2.5 cups all pur­pose flour (or bread flour)

2 table­spoons olive oil

1/2  tea­spoon salt

1 tea­spoon white sugar

How to Put it Together:

In a smaller bowl you will add your packet of yeast, warm water & sugar.  It should start to foam & grow.  If this doesn’t hap­pen within 5–10 min­utes, throw out your yeast & start over.  Either your packet was old or per­haps the water was too hot.

In a large bowl, add in your flour & salt.  Then you want to make a hole or well in the cen­ter in the bowl.  Into that com­bine yeast with water & olive oil.  Mix it together.

Trans­fer dough to a lightly floured work sur­face and knead dough for about 5– 7 min­utes.  Chalk up the 5–7 min­utes knead­ing as part of your arm work-out for the day.  I am pretty sure it counts.  Also, you may need to add more flour.  Because you want the pizza dough to become a smooth and elas­tic dough. Dough should not be sticky.  Sticky won’t work, it won’t be good, this is pizza not a Def Leop­ard song were sticky is seen as rock legend.

Once that is done you will put your dough into a lightly oiled (olive oil!) 2 or 3 quart bowl. Roll the dough around in the bowl so it gets coated in the oil. Then you want to cover with a damp kitchen towel (also called a tea towel) and let rise in a warm place until dou­bled in size.  It will take about ONE hour.

Once that is done roll it into a 12-inch cir­cle. My kids LOVE help­ing with this, we often use our hands because heck it’s just more fun.  Plus it keeps them enter­tained & excited about food.  Just make sure every­one washes their hands first.

When you bake it place the rolled out dough a 12-inch pizza pan that you have brushed olive oil on.

I love to make a Margherita Pizza, as my pic­tures show.  Top­ping the dough that I stretch out to a thin­ner crust with my home­made mari­nara sauce: tomato & basil sauce, fresh moz­zarella & some ripped up fresh basil. Cook at 425 degrees for about 14 min­utes or until it’s is crispy & your cheese is all bub­bly & melty.  Yes, those are really tech­ni­cal terms for describ­ing what hap­pens to your pizza (what?).

Tagged as: basil, cooking, easy, food, food & drink, homecooking, homemade, Itaian, marinara, meatless, mozzarella, pizza, pizza dough, recipe, simple, simple recipe, vegetarian