Basic Pizza Dough & a Giveaway!

I have already mentioned my pizza cookbook in another blog post and I thought that it was a great time to make a few pizzas this week. In a sense I'm considering this my very own "pizza week" and I thought that it would be fun to end things with a giveaway of the cookbook I co-wrote with my husband. So stayed tuned for a week of pizzas and of course a chance to win a copy of my pizza cookbook which has well over 50 pizza recipes, entry rules are included at the bottom of this post.

Pretty much any pizza, stuffed bread or anything that utilizes pizza dough can be done with fresh or store bought pizza dough. I think it goes without saying that homemade pizza dough will always surpass the store bought version, but don't get me wrong here - I use store bought pizza dough all the time. Sometimes there just isn't enough hours in a day to do it entirely from scratch.



Basic Pizza Dough
Yield: 2 doughs
Prep Time: 1.5 hours

Ingredients

• 3 cups flour, plus some additional for dusting
• 1 package active dry yeast
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 cup warm water
• 1 tbs salt
• 2 tbs olive oil, plus some additional 

Using a stand mixer with the dough hook attachment combine the yeast, sugar and warm water stirring it gently. Let this mixture stand for approximately 5 minutes or until the yeast begins to foam. Turn the mixer on low and add the salt and 2 tbs of olive oil. 

Next add the flour one cup at a time and increase the mixer's speed to medium. You will know the dough is ready when it gathers into a semi-firm ball. If the dough is too dry you can add small amounts of warm water to get it to the proper consistency. Conversely, if the dough is too sticky add small amounts of flour to dry it out a bit.

When the dough is ready divide it into two equal pieces. Place the first dough on a lightly floured surface and knead until it becomes smooth and elastic. Create a ball and coat the outsides lightly in oil. Repeat these steps for the second dough ball and place both balls into separate lightly oiled bowls.

Place a piece of plastic wrap directly on the top of each dough and cover the entire bowl with a kitchen towel. Put the bowls in a warm spot and allow to rise for at least one hour. The dough should approximately double in size.

Keep checking back everyone for a series of four pizzas this week...

You can enter the giveaway you must either become a fan on my Facebook page, subscribe to my blog via email or leave a comment here stating what your favorite pizza is. You can enter more than once by doing all three things on this post and on any (or all) of the pizza posts to come this week. Good luck everyone!