Pizza Dough 1
Ingredients
- For the dough:
- 1.5 c milk
- 2 t active dry yeast
- 1 T sugar (white or brown)
- 610 g Flour (Strong Bread) (plus more as needed, depending on humidity)
- 1 t Salt (Table)
- 2 T olive oil
- oil (as needed)
- cornmeal (for dusting, optional)
- For the pizza:
- 100 g pepperoni (or salami, as desired, optional)
- 2 c shredded cheese (mozzarella, plus others as desired)
- toppings (bell peppers, mushrooms, etc, as desired; optional)
- 350 g pizza sauce (as needed)
Method
Place the milk in a pot over medium low heat. Heat until it reaches 180F, then turn off the heat. Let cool to 105F before mixing with the yeast.
Combine the yeast, sugar, and scalded milk until it becomes foamy, about 5 minutes.
Once it's foamy, add flour, salt and olive oil. Mix together with the dough hooks of an electric mixer, then remove from bowl to knead for 8 to 10 minutes, until the dough is a nice smooth elastic ball. Oil a bowl (preferably glass or metal), put the dough in it, turn to coat in oil, cover with plastic wrap and let sit in a warm place for an hour.
After the dough has doubled, start preheating the oven to 500F. Punch the dough down and knead another 4 minutes. Form into a ball, divide into two, and roll them out to fit your pans (they'll each fit a 12" round pan nicely).
To finish making the pizza:
Either dust the bottom of the crust with cornmeal, or lightly oil the pan. Press the dough into the pan and let rise (this is the second rise), while you prepare the rest of the pizza.
If you're using pepperoni, salami, etc: degrease it by laying it out on paper towels in a single layer and nuking it in the microwave for about 25 seconds. YOU WANT TO DO THIS TO YOUR PEPPERONI. You know how sometimes you go out for pizza and the top of it is an oil slick, filled with pools of red oil? That's from pepperoni that hasn't been prepped this way first. If greasy pizza is your thing, then skip this step.
Shred your cheese, chop your bell peppers and mushrooms, and get your other toppings ready.
Spread the sauce with a spatula, trying to get it as even as possible. Then layer the cheese, pepperoni, olives, and veggies; pop into a 500F preheated oven for about 15-18 minutes.
Notes
SJ Note 14 July 2011: This is fantastic pizza dough! Not hard at all to make, and a perfect crust. A keeper!