This idiot's guide to pizza dough

I have a confession to make:

I am flour impaired.  

I'm not too proud to admit it.  



When I attempt to use flour I manage to get it in my hair, up my nose, and in my eyes.  When I'm finished, the kitchen resembles Pompeii. This handicap is embarrassing and inconvenient. I am in love with bread (and all of its gluten filled relations).  I am currently obsessed with making food from scratch.  Are you seeing the problem?  

My (eventually) mother-in-law has allowed me to use her Kitchen Aid stand mixer while she's living the RV lifestyle. I've never had the pleasure of owning one before.  It is a quite the fun and useful kitchen toy.  It has come in handy for many things including, most recently, making homemade pizza dough.

I'm Italian from both sides of my family. Don't let my 12 letter last name and larger than average honker fool you.  My family is small, quiet, and rather cooking impaired.  Needless to say, I do not have a cookbook filled with generations worth of recipes from our home country.  Up until a few weeks ago I had never even attempted to make my own pizza dough because of my before mentioned handicap.  I found this recipe on one of the blogs I follow. (Her blog is awesome, by the way, so definitely check it out!)  After a few fights with the yeast (not the flour!! hooray!) Adam and I managed to have perfect results.

Here is THIS IDIOT's guide to pizza dough:

Ingredients:

1/2 cup hot water (110-115 degrees F) it shouldn't scald you when you put your fingers in it but it should be almost uncomfortably hot
1/2 TB yeast
1/2 t salt
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup white flour
 

Gather your ingredients and tools, dummy! 

(Don't forget the salt like I did in the picture. Oh and everyone should be cool like me and store sugar in a recycled honey bear!) 

 

 

Next, activate your yeast.  This was the trickiest part for me.  The trick is once you've figured out the right temp for the water, add a little sugar with the yeast! Stir the yeast, sugar, and water until dissolved and it looks like this:

Set a timer for 5 minutes and ignore the yeast until the alarm goes off.  It should look like this:

That froth on the surface is what you're looking for.  If it hasn't started bubbling after 5 minutes you've done something wrong and should try adjusting your water temperature and trying again.  To be honest, I had to scratch the first batch of mine when I made dough for this tutorial!  A thermometer might be a good investment!

Once your yeast is good and frothy, add your salt and flour to the mixer bowl and pour in your yeast mixture.  Stir to combine and let your stand mixer do the hard labor.  5 minutes of kneading and your dough should look like this:

 
Cover and ignore for 20-30 minutes.

Can you see my kindle in the left corner of the frame?  I bet you know what I did while I waited!

When the timer goes off your dough should have risen.  Something like this:

 
 This batch was rather anticlimactic but if you double or triple the recipe the difference is more pronounced.  Adam and I are going out to dinner with friends tonight so I know I'm not going to use this beauty I made so I wrapped it up and threw it in the freezer for another night.

From start to finish (without cooking or messing up your yeast) this should take about 35-40 minutes.  Not too bad considering the store bought stuff from the bakery department tells you to let it sit out for an hour and then it is still a rotten beast to roll out.  The Pillsbury stuff in a can doesn't taste nearly as good and is full of yucky stuff you don't want to eat anyway.

Cooking the dough on a stone is pretty much a necessity.  It makes the dough crisp and perfect everytime.  If you plan on cooking it right after you make it, preheat the oven and the stone to 500 degrees F while you've got the timer set for rising.  Then, by the time you're done topping with all your favorites (mine happen to be black olives and mushrooms) your stone and oven will be ready for you.  In our oven, this pizza took about 8 minutes to cook and was just the right size for Adam and I to share.  I suggest doubling the recipe for a family of 4.  

We only put my homemade jalapenos (which I could have sworn I wrote a blog about making but can't for the life of me find it so I can link it!) and sun-dried tomatoes on this one.  

TIP:  More toppings = longer cook time.

Good luck on your attempts, all!