Pizza is one of my favorite foods. I love it. Generally, I prefer vegetarian pizzas over pepperoni. I’ve never been a huge fan of pepperoni pizza even when I was a kid. I know; I’m weird. Like you aren’t. I’m just saying.
Anyway, yeast has been my mortal enemy for many years. Why? Well, let’s just say there was an incident involving yeast that left me scarred permanently. Seriously, I have a scar on my stomach to prove that I battled yeast and lost!
I was making breadsticks and had heated up some water to place underneath the breadsticks to help them rise quickly. Well, as I was trying to balance the bowl and maneuver the tray of breadsticks, disaster struck. I tipped the bowl of almost boiling water onto myself.
No one’s ever compared my muscles to the Incredible Hulk, but the buttons flew when I ripped my shirt open to expose my scalded belly. My poor belly suffered second-degree burns. I suffered in silence (well, not really – I’m pretty sure I swore a lot) until my mom came home and took me to the emergency room.
So many years later (too many years to count) I still bear the scars of my breadstick-making incident. Since that fateful afternoon, I avoid making anything involving yeast. Oh sure, I eat bread. Lots and lots of bread. I just don’t make it, unless it’s a quick bread.
But I decided to be brave and throw caution to the wind. I bought some yeast and made homemade pizza dough. Successfully. Without a trip to the emergency room. Without burning myself. Yabba dabba do.
And even better – this pizza dough is delicious. It’s chewy and tender and gives you the perfect foundation to build your dream pizza. I have some more pizza dough frozen, and I’m already envisioning all the yummy pizzas I’m going to make.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup warm water
- 2 1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
- 4 cups bread flour, plus more for dusting
- 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/4 cup water, at room temperature
- 2 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 3-4 Tablespoons pesto
- 2-3 heirloom tomatoes, sliced
- 3 oz. goat cheese, crumbled
- 1 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded
Instructions
- Measure the warm water into a 2-cup liquid measuring cup. Sprinkle in the yeast and let stand until the yeast dissolves and swells, about 5 minutes. Add the room temperature water and oil and stir to combine.
- Process the flour and salt in a large food processor, pulsing to combine. Continue pulsing while pouring the liquid ingredients (holding back a few tablespoons) through the feed tube. If the dough does not readily form a ball, add the remaining liquid and continue to pulse until a ball forms. Process until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 30 seconds longer.
- Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured work surface. Knead by hand for a few strokes to form a smooth, round ball. Put the dough into a deep oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise until doubled in size, 1 to 2 hours. Press the dough to deflate it.
- Divide the dough into two equal pieces. Form each piece of dough into a smooth, round ball. (If freezing the dough, wrap in plastic wrap and freeze at this point.) Cover with a damp cloth. Let the dough relax for at least 10 minutes but no longer than 30 minutes.
- To bake, preheat the oven and pizza stone to 500˚ F for at least 30 minutes.
- Transfer the dough to a large piece of parchment paper, lightly sprinkled with cornmeal. Shape the dough with lightly floured hands. Brush the outer edge lightly with olive oil.
- Thinly spread pesto over dough. Place pizza (and parchment paper too) onto pizza stone or cookie sheet. Bake 8 minutes. Remove pizza from oven and top with tomato slices, crumbled goat cheese and mozzarella cheese. Bake an additional 3-4 minutes until the edges are golden and crisp.
Notes
You can freeze the second pizza ball. Wrap in plastic and place in a ziploc bag. To use, transfer frozen dough to the refrigerator in the morning of the day you plan to use it. It will thaw and rise in time for dinner that evening.
I don’t have a pizza stone but a cookie sheet worked fine. And yes, the parchment paper will turn brown while your pizza bakes, but that’s okay.
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