Tips For the Perfect Pizza Dough

Making your own pizza dough is not only less expensive than relying on the store-bought or take-out types, but it is also a great way to enjoy a variety of delicious pizza pies. Moreover, while you do not need any special culinary skills to make the perfect pizza dough, there are still a few tips you will definitely want to keep in mind.

First, always preheat your oven as directed in the dough recipe you are following. Average temperatures for making pizza dough range from 400 to 500 degrees Fahrenheit. Exact cooking times will depend on the number of toppings used as well as the desired thickness of the crust or dough.

When kneading dough, you may need to use some extra flour to keep it pliable and easy to work with, but do not add too much or it will become dry and crack. Alternatively, if your pizza dough feels more like cake or cookie batter, it is too wet and will need more flour.

Always add extra water and flour in very small amounts.

When it comes time to adding the toppings, do not put too many in the center of the rolled out dough. When pizza is cut into slices, the center of the pie is where the smallest part of each slice will be. For the best results, distribute your toppings evenly around the pie.

Recipe for Easy Pizza Dough

What You Need

1 cup warm water
2 teaspoons honey
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon yeast
3 1/2 cups flour
2 tablespoons olive oil

How to Make It

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. In a medium sized mixing bowl, add the warm water, honey, and salt and stir together. Add the yeast to the water mixture and allow to sit for 10 minutes.

Next, gradually add the flour, then the olive oil and mix together with a spoon. When the mixture becomes too thick to continue mixing with the spoon, begin to knead the dough with your hands.

Continue kneading the dough until you have a round, smooth ball. Put the dough in a large bowl and coat with olive oil before covering with plastic wrap and set on the counter. Allow the dough to rise inside the bowl in room temperature for about an hour.

After the dough has risen, push down into the center of the ball to deflate the dough. Then, recover the dough before allowing it to sit and rise again for another hour.

On a lightly floured surface, begin stretching the dough out into a round, pie shape pulling from the center of the dough ball working your way out. Use a rolling pin to flatten down the dough until it is about a quarter of an inch thick, unless you prefer thicker or thinner crust, of course.

Using a toothpick or a fork, poke some holes throughout the dough to avoid bubbles from forming as it is baking.

Now you are ready to add your sauce and toppings. The more toppings you use the longer the bake time will be. For two toppings, bake your dough for about 20 minutes, or until the crust turns a light brown color, and then enjoy your homemade pizza.

You will never want to order take-out again using a simple yet tasty pizza dough recipe that everyone in the family will love. Experiment with different pizza recipes varying the toppings, sauces, and types of dough you use to create interesting and flavorful creations.

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