Friday night is Pizza night at our house. We mostly stick with pepperoni and Canadian bacon or BBQ chicken. Each week we modify the dough recipe because it is to dry or wet, sometimes sometimes to stiff, could be soggy when in comes out of the oven. But last night, we got it perfect! The dough was crispy, packed with flavor, it wasn't soggy at all. So, I thought I would share this with you.
Ingredients
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon active dry yeast
1 C warm water
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for brushing
3- 3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon butter
dry oregano
What to do:
Whisk 1 cup warm water (105 degrees F) and the sugar in a bowl; sprinkle the yeast on top. Set aside until foamy, about 10 minutes. Stir in the olive oil.
If you have mixer that can handle bread dough just put all the dry ingredients in first, mix them up and than add the yeast, water and olive oil that you previously prepared. If not, don't dismay, you can do it by hand! (We did it for four months in Virginia, it turns our just as good.) Whisk the flour salt and oregano in a large bowl. Make a well in the center of the flour and pour in the yeast mixture. Gradually stir with a wooden spoon to make a rough dough. ( when you add the oregano, rub it around in your hands before it goes into the bowl. This helps to release some more of the flavors and helps to make sure you don't bite a big chunk.)
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes, dusting with more flour if necessary. Brush a separate large bowl with olive oil, add the ball of dough turn to coat with the oil. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and set aside at room temperature until doubled in size, about 1 hour, 30 minutes. Shape as desired and roll out to a thickness of 1/4-inch. Transfer to the preheated pizza stone and bake until crispy and golden brown, usually 12 to 18 minutes (depending on the toppings). We do not use a pizza stone, but for an extra crispy crust it works great. For an extra bit of flavor we like to crush some garlic into olive oil, spread that on the dough and bake that for 5-7 minutes at 375 or 400. The first baking of the crust is crucial to making your pizza crust not soggy. When you pizza come out of the oven, lightly brush the crust with melted butter. yum!
