If your going to try making homemade pizza crust, I suggest you start with making this dough.  It’s fairly simple.  It requires a handful of ingredients and a short amount of time.  An hour of rising inside your oven, with steam, will activate the yeast quicker.

I have made this recipe as stated below, but then there are times when I substituted a cup a wheat flour for a cup of the all-pupose flour. I have also added a few tablespoons of cornmeal for an extra texture.

These definitely are not the most attractive pictures – just ignore my well baked in dirty oven floor 😉 I may have put a fire or two out by throwing baking soda all over-  but for now they can give you a visual of the make shift proofer in the above photo and the dough right before the towel/plastic wrap goes on, to help get you started.

Ingredients

1 cup warm water (100-110°)

1 pkg. active dry yeast (2 1/4 tsp.)

1 tsp. honey

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup bread flour

1 T. kosher salt

2 T. olive oil

Directions

Combine water, yeast, and honey in a small bowl and let stand until foamy, 5 minutes. Bring a large pot of water to a boil.

Whisk both flours and salt together in the bowl of a stand mixer; add yeast mixture and oil. Mix on low speed using a dough hook until blended, smooth, and dough springs back when pressed, 7-10 minutes. Transfer to an oiled bowl, cover loosely with plastic wrap or a clean kitchen towel, place in a cool oven with the pot of boiling water on the rack next to it. Allow dough to rise until doubled, about 1 hour.

Divide dough into quarters, shape into balls, and wrap in plastic. Or use the whole ball of dough to make one pizza. Use dough right away or chill for up to 1 hour. (Dough may be frozen at this point. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight before using.)

Source: Cuisine at Home Issue No.71 October 2008

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