Absolutely Easy Pizza Dough
Pizza. It’s one of those universal things that everyone just loves. In my opinion, anyone who doesn’t at least like pizza cannot be trusted. There’s melty cheese and warm crispy bread and sauce- like what is there not to love? And then there’s the utter accessibility. You can order a pizza and have it delivered to you as you drink a couple glasses of wine and watch love affairs gone wrong on the ID channel. No drinking and driving. It just comes to you. It’s just so convenient.
But one snowy day, pizza delivery failed me. One glass of wine into a Wives with Knives marathon, I attempted to order a quick pizza and was rejected. “Sorry ma’am, we’re not delivering due to inclement weather.” Excuse me? This is winter in Detroit. There’s always inclement weather. Unacceptable. I was forced to stomp into the kitchen and make my own.
In retrospect the pizza man did me a huge favor. Otherwise I might have never known how absolutely easy it was to make my own! Whip together a quick dough, smatter it with sauce and toppings of your choosing, and you’re good to go. These days I make pizzas at home constantly. It’s cheaper per serving, almost faster than delivery, and to be totally honest, it makes me feel kind of fancy. This recipe makes enough dough for two ten inch pizzas. Be cool and learn to make pizza dough. You’ll thank yourself later.
What You’ll Need:
¾ cup of warm, almost hot water
A teaspoon of instant yeast
2 cups of all-purpose flour
1½ teaspoons of salt
A tablespoon of honey
What To Do:
To make a really good pizza, you need to get your oven as hot as it can possibly go. Pizza chefs work with ovens as high as 800 degrees. 500 will do for those of us at home with standard ovens. You also want to make sure your oven heats for about a half an hour.
Now combine your “warm almost hot” water, honey, and yeast in mixing bowl and give it a little stir to combine. The warm water helps the yeast to activate. Let it sit for about five minutes.
Go ahead and add the salt and flour to the bowl, and give it a mix. You can totally use a wooden spoon, but of course I used my stand mixer. (Unless it’s totally necessary, I pretty much hate exerting any extra energy.) And look at that! Your dough has come together! It looks kind of shaggy and weird right now, but you’re on the right track.
Turn the dough out onto a clean, lightly floured surface, and knead until smooth. It’ll still feel moist and a little sticky, that’s what you want. But if it’s sticking to your hands and the counter, sprinkle in a little flour about a tablespoon at a time as you knead.
You’re pretty much done! If you have time, lightly oil another bowl, plop it in, cover it, and let it rise for about an hour. If you don’t feel like waiting, no worries. This recipe is super versatile. Moving on.
Now here’s the fun part. Cut the dough in two. Using a rolling pin, or a glass, or the even the heel of your hand, work one of the balls of dough into your ideal pizza shape. I prefer rolling it out to about a quarter inch thickness.
Place your disk of dough on your pizza pan, sheet pan, parchment paper, whatever, and top with your favorite sauce and toppings. I typically do a marinara, slices of fresh mozzarella, and whatever veggies I might have on hand. Click here for my easy peasy Pasta Sauce 101 post for sauce options!
Now throw that baby in the oven and let it bake until the edges are golden brown and crispy. Take it out the oven. You did it. You made a pizza!