[bring to a boil]

Pizza Dough - enough for three 10” round pizzas or one 14” oval pizza

You’ll need:

1 cup warm water (110° F)
1/4  teaspoon sugar
2 teaspoons dry active yeast
2 3/4 - 3 1/4 cups all purpose flour (sometimes I will substitute up to 1 cup of the AP flour for corn meal, it makes a heartier, sweeter crust)
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil 

1. In a small bowl mix the warm water, sugar, and yeast until the yeast has dissolved. Set aside until yeast becomes foamy, about 5 minutes. 
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer (you can use a food processor, but I like my Kitchen Aid much better because you do not need to kneed the dough by hand as much and I hate getting my hands sticky!) combine 2 3/4 cups of the flour, salt, olive oil, and yeast mixture. Using the dough hook, mix until the dough comes together into a smooth ball and is no longer sticky.
3. Place the dough into an oiled bowl, smooth side down.  Cover with clean towel and set in a warm place until dough has roughly doubled in size (about 40 minutes). 
4. Remove towel and punch down.  While still in the bowl, fold dough onto itself 4 or 5 times, replace towel and set aside until it has double in size again (about 30 minutes). 
5. Punch dough down again.  On a clean counter divide dough into the number of pizzas you intend to make and kneed each piece an addition 4 to 5 times. 

*

• This dough can be refrigerated for 12 hours or frozen for up to 4 weeks. When freezing the dough, after step 3 roll each pizza out flat before wrapping in plastic wrap.  When defrosting, leave at room temperature for about 3 hours until dough has completely thawed and doubled in size then follow steps 4 and 5. 
• Preheat oven to 500° F. 
• As for toppings … go crazy. The possibilities are honestly endless.  If I’m having people over for pizza, I like to prep a ton of toppings and let people assemble their own. 
• Brush the exposed crust with extra virgin olive oil. Bake for about 8 - 12 minutes, until the crust is golden and cheese is melted. 
• You can freeze the pizzas at this point too.  In fact, I prefer to. That way when you’re feeling lazy and you just want some pizza, all you have to do it reheat them. I found they freeze the best if you place a sheet of parchment paper on top of each pizza before you wrap them in two layers of plastic wrap.  Wait until they are completely cooled before you wrap them to prevent ice crystals from forming and making everything mushy when reheated.  Make sure you label them so you can tell what they are topped with.  Reheat at 450° F until warm all the way through (about 10-15 minutes).

This post brought to you by insomnia and Alex Beaudet’s request.