Everyone in our family loves pizza, but it's expensive.  I'd like to try making it at home.

I used to work in a pizza parlor, so I make a pretty mean pizza, but the crusts were always made ahead of time by someone else, so I never learned to make those.

Anyone have a good / easy recipe for pizza crust dough?  Thanks.

I have not tried this myself- but I have a coworker who swears by the pizza crust recipe in Barbara Kingsolver's book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.  Here is a link to the recipe page on her site- scroll down to the "Friday Night Pizza" recipe.

http://www.animalvegetablemiracle.com/Recipes.html

Good luck!

Lesley

I don't have a recipe, but make mine from scratch.  It's pretty much an art to learn how to tell when the dough is kneaded enough.

Rough recipe;

3 c flour

13/4 t salt

1.5 packages yeast (Fleischmann's or Red Star)

1.25 c. warm water (not hot - you will kill the yeast...a bit warmer than luke-warm)

3T oil (any kind of vegetable oil)

Dissolve yeast in water, stir well and let it sit 2-3 minutes.

In a large bowl put in flour and salt.. Pour in yeast mix and stir with fork until clumpy.  drizzle oil in on top and mix for a few minutes.  Turn out onto lightly floured surface and knead gently until dough is uniform and soft.  Don't over-knead.  May need a bit more flour.

Form in to a ball, place in a lightly greased bowl, and cover with a damp towel.  Place in warm area to rise for 40 minutes, or until doubled.

At this point, you can use the dough however you'd like.

Good luck!

I think any straight dough method works for pizza, really: flour, salt, water, and yeast.   Pizza dough does like a little sugar and olive oil as well.  I have made variations by replacing ~30% of the AP flour for wheat, and replacing yeast with my sourdough starter.  Both were excellent. 

You can proof a lot of dough at once - divide it equally, put them in individual sandwich bags or plastic wrap.  Freeze for months.  Move to the refridgerator the day before you want to make pizza to allow for thawing and reproofing.

Also, the best pizza crust loves to bake on some type of stone or ceramic plate at rippin' hot temps ~450 degF.   I personally use an upside down terra cotta planter dish from the hardware store.

Thanks all.  Sounds like a bit of work.

Do you think the dough could be made in a bread maker?  Just curious. I do have one, but don't use it often.

On the "dough setting" all a bread maker does is mix and knead the ingredients and lets it sit there to proof.  It will not measure your ingredients or roll out the pizza disc shape for you. 

In fact I don't believe these machines save you much work at all.  If this all sounds like too much work, maybe you can find frozen dough disks in the supermarket by the pie crusts.

Hi,

The best way to make pizza dough for me is in the kitchen aid mixer, if you don't have one of those, the food processor is my number two choice.

Any water only bread recipe will do to give you a great crispy crust.  The one I use most follows:

3-31/2 C Flour

1 T/ or package rapid rise or regular yeast

1/4 tsp salt

1 C very warm water (120-130* F)

2 T vegetable  or olive Oil

Mix in Kitchen aid Mixer  (start with paddle attachment) or by hand

1) Mix  2 Cups of the flour, the yeast  and salt in a deep bowl.  Add very hot water and olive oil in a stream and mix well. 

2) Switch to dough hook if using mixer - Mix in enough flour to make a smooth dough -start with another 1 Cup and then see if the dough is smooth and not sticking to your clean hands -- if it is still sticky, add 1/4 cup of flour at a time until you get dough that is smooth and elastic - this means springy and will pull back into place when pulled by you.

Knead until your arms get tired  or at least 2 -6 minutes.

Rest 10 minutes covered with a tea towel if using rapid rise yeast,  Rest 30-45 minutes if using regular yeast.

Lightly oil pans 1- 14 inch or 2 -12 inch  sprinkle with corn meal if desired.

Punch down dough and knead a few times to remove any air bubbles and to make it a smooth dough again.

Divide (or not) and roll with rolling pin (or mush and pinch and pull)  to fit your pan.  Then proceed as you usually would.

Hope this helps!

TracyL

Here's the one I use. Makes 2 large pizzas or one Extra large. Note: I use a Kitchen aid but you can mix by hand if you want.

1 2/3 cups milk (bring to close to room temp)

2 TBL oil

2 Tsp Lemon Juice

1 Tsp  Salt

2 TBL Sugar

4 1/2 cups flour

2 Tsp yeast (or one packet of rapid rise)

1 TBL Pizza seasoning (we use a pizza grinder)

Combine the dry incredients minus 1/2 cup of the flour)in the mixer with dough hook. Turn mixer on low. Starting with the milk add the wet ingredients to the dry mixture. Once combined add the remaining flour as needed until dough no longer sticks to the side of the bowl. let rise until double in size. punch down and roll out to make your pizza.