{Makes} Pizza Dough!

Who knew adding ONE ingredient would make such a difference in a pizza dough!

I've always made this recipe, and it was always a little dense.

Since finding the secret ingredient to restaurant quality pizza dough I have gone from an occasional pizza eater, to is it pizza night yet?!? 

And since it's Friday, it's Pizza night here! So it's the perfect time to share the perfect pizza dough recipe!

Have you figured out what the secret ingredient is?

Let's think about it...

We all know pizza dough is a yeast based dough (right?), so that isn't the secret ingredient.

Then you need water to wake up the yeast, so it's not that.

Then you need flour, so it's not that either.

Different recipes add seasonings, and they don't change anything but flavor. 

Alright, I'll finally let you in on it...

Baking Powder! 

Who knew one teaspoon could make such a difference!

To make the dough you will need:

1 1/3 cup warm water (too hot and it will kill your yeast)

2 teaspoons sugar

2 teaspoons yeast (or one packet)

2 tablespoons olive oil

3 cups sifted flour  (no sifter, no problem!)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon onion powder

Let's get dough making!

To activate yeast, put your warm water in a bowl. Not to hot, not to cold. Add your sugar, this will act like a food to get your yeast to start metabolizing and waking up. Then stir in your yeast.  Now is when I start pulling out the rest of my ingredients, and sifting my flour.  The yeast needs about 10 minutes to be ready for dough making. I do this in my metal mixer bowl.

While I wait for my yeast, I sift my flour, baking powder, and seasonings into a separate bowl.  Sometimes you need to improvise and use a cheese grater, others a sifter works too!

Once the yeast is ready, I turn my mixer on low with the paddle on. 

First slowly add the oil, then my bowl of dry ingredients.

Once my ingredients start to get incorporated, I switch over to my hook attachment.

If you don't have a stand mixer, I imagine you could do this in a food processor, or by hand.

If by hand I would say use a spoon until now, then knead by hand.

At this time I use the medium speed on my mixer. I've seen some recipes say allow the dough to mix on medium speed for 10 minutes. I don't think you need to for that long, all it does for me is shake my mixer across the counter, so I like to mix it on medium until I get a nice ball. 

No for some hands off time. The rising. 

If your kitchen is warm, all you need is a damp kitchen towel over the top of your bowl.  

If your kitchen is cold like mine there are a couple of tricks you can do. 

I use my oven. When I start my yeast, I turn my oven on full blast. My oven is 1970's old, so it takes forever to heat up, so you may need to play with your oven temperature. when I'm just about ready to turn my mixer to medium with the dough hook I turn it off.  You don't want to bake your dough in the bowl, just keep it warm. Then I place my dough, with the wet kitchen towel in my oven to rise.

If you have a microwave (we don't), you can put a bowl of water in the microwave for 5 minutes, then take it out and put your dough bowl in (don't turn back on). You just want the moist warm environment.

After an hour or so, you have beautiful fluffy dough!

I like to scrape the sides of my bowl with a spatula, and dump it on the pan I am going to bake it on.

Once on the pan, I roll it out with a  rolling pin. 

I find the less pressure you roll with the better. 

You don't want to ruin all the air bubbles, it will make it dense.

See the corners? I use my fingers to spread the dough to them. Or you could leave it short too.

Now for some toppings! 

If I'm doing a red pizza I start with my canned garden tomato pizza sauce. 

If I'm leaving white, I will add a little more garlic.

For the kids, just cheese! My husband pepperoni! 

My personal favorite? White pizza with Garlic and Broccoli.

Yum! 

Happy Friday!

And Happy Pizza Night!

I'm off to make my dough for later!