Homemade Pizza Dough

Ever since I learned how to make my own pizza dough last year, we hardly order pizza at a restaurant anymore. This dough is very easy to make, plus it's natural, healthier and convenient to use. It can be stored in the freezer for 3 months. Just take it out to thaw, knead again, and cut off a piece, to roll and make a fresh, new pizza.

It doesn't matter if your pizza is not perfectly round as you roll it out. Let it have a rustic look. The kids just like to make strange shapes with the dough, so it's fun!

But if you sometimes have pangs of OCD like me, just turn over a plate on top of the rolled out pizza dough, and trim off the excess.

Homemade pizza crust with salami, mozzarella, chili flakes and fresh arugula.

HOMEMADE PIZZA DOUGH

250 ml warm water

2 teaspoons yeast

1 tsp honey

2 tablespoons oil

3 cups flour

1 tsp salt

 Procedure:

1. Mix yeast in warm water in a large bowl until dissolved.  Add the honey (to feed and activate the yeast).  Set aside; it will become foamy if the yeast is alive.  In a mixing bowl, mix together the the oil, flour and salt and the yeast/water mixture, until the dough is shaggy.
2. Tip the dough onto a table which has been sprinkled with flour, and knead the dough.  Fold one end and use the heel of your palm to keep kneading the dough to work the gluten.  It’s done when the dough is smooth and when it springs back when you poke the dough.
3. Drizzle the same mixing bowl you used to mix the dough, with oil.  Put the dough ball inside it. Rub it around the oil gently, and flip it to cover it with the oil. Rest with seam side underneath.  Cover with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel.  Tip: I use a plastic, disposable shower cap to do this.  Let it rise for at least one hour.  (To speed up the rising process, you can preheat an oven to 200 degrees C, then turn it off.  Put the bowl inside the oven until it rises. Make sure your bowl is oven proof.)
4. When you are ready to make pizza, preheat the oven with the highest temperature possible.  (If you have a pizza stone, this will be much better as it makes the surface on which you put your pizza even hotter. Preheat your oven with the pizza stone in it.)
5. Take out your dough and put it on the table, lightly dusted with flour.  Cut a piece and roll the dough with your rolling pin.  (Make sure you dust your rolling pin with flour too so that it does not stick to the dough.) You don't really need to make it a perfect circle, for a more rustic look. But if you do want to make it a perfect circle, get a plate and put it over the dough and cut off the excess. (Add the excess back to your roll of dough, to be reused.)
6. Put the rolled dough on top of baking paper.  Spread tomato puree, pesto or olive oil as a base. Top with your favorite ingredients.  Bake on top of your pizza stone.  Take it out once you see that the edges are crisp and brown.
7. Dough can be stored in the freezer for 3 months.  Just oil the dough, wrap with plastic wrap and put in an oiled plastic container, tightly covered.  When you are ready to use it, just defrost at room temperature.  Knead again and it’s ready to use.

Chicken Alfredo pizza, made from chicken fillet, cream, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Put it on top of the pizza, along with frozen, drained spinach.

Additional Tips:

1. Dough that is left to rise slow (overnight), tastes more like sourdough due to the long fermentation process.
2. For a crispier dough, roll the dough out thinly, especially up to the edges and add some polenta (yellow cornmeal) underneath the dough. If you want to incorporate the polenta into the dough, use a ratio of 1:2 for polenta:flour.
3. To ensure your dough doesn’t stick to the table or on the rolling pin while kneading, sprinkle flour on the table and rub onto the rolling pin.  Not too much though or it will make the dough dry and tough.You can also put some oil on the table, instead of flour.
4. For a tomato based sauce, use tomato puree.  Tomato sauce is too watery; tomato paste is too thick.  Tomato puree is just the right consistency.
5. Try using bottled pesto sauce or just plain olive oil topped with finely shaved garlic as a base, instead of tomato sauce.
6. Pizza is done when the edges are brown and crisp and the toppings are bubbling.
7. You can make appetisers out of this dough with small pizza rounds, 2 inches in diameter.

This one is with a pesto base, with green bell pepper, sausages and cheese.