Basic Pizza Dough

This months Daring Bakers challenge was pizza dough. I have made pizza dough several times but I have never been quite satisfied with the results and I was looking forward to trying the Daring Bakers recipe. One of the requirements of the DB challenge was to actually toss the dough to form it rather than just rolling it; so it sounded like it would be a bit of fun as well. This pizza dough requires that you let it rest in the fridge at least over night so you have to plan a bit ahead.

I found this pizza dough to be a bit difficult to work with. It was super sticky from the get go and required constant dustings of flour and oil to keep it from sticking to everything. It was however fun trying to form the dough into a circle without rolling it. I did not manage to form perfect circles with any of my pizzas but that did not affect their taste at all. I think more practice is in order. :) In the end this pizza crust turned out to be the best that I have made at home and I quite enjoyed it.

Ingredients:
4 1/2 cups bread flour
1 3/4 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon instant yeast
1/4 cup olive oil
1 3/4 cups water (ice cold)
1 tablespoon sugar
cornmeal (or semolina flour) for dusting

Directions:
1. Mix the flour, salt and yeast in a large bowl.
2. Add the oil, water and sugar and mix until it forms a sticky ball of dough.
3. Knead on a clean surface for 5-7 minutes adding flour if it is too wet or water if it is too dry.
4. Cut the dough into three pieces and form them into balls.
5. Place the dough balls on a pan, spray them with oil and cover them with plastic.
6. Place the dough in the fridge and let it rest over night or up to three days.
7. Place the dough on a lightly floured surface and form it into discs. Lightly flour the discs, spray them with oil, cover them with parchment paper and let them rest for 2 hours.
8. Flour (or oil) your hands and lay the dough across your knuckles. Lightly bounce the dough on your knuckles, turning it and stretching it until it reaches the size that you want.
9. Place the dough on a baking pan dusted with cornmeal.
10. Add your pizza toppings.
11. Bake in a preheated 500F oven until golden brown on top, about 5-10 minutes.

Use in:
Taco Pizza
Thai Chicken Pizza with Sweet Chili Sauce
Jalapeno Popper Pizza
Balsamic Strawberry and Chicken Pizza with Sweet Onions and Smoked Bacon
Pizza Poppers
Spinach and Artichoke Dip Pizza

Similar Recipes:
Thin Crust Pizza Dough