Best Pizza Dough Eva

Needed:

(preferred) Standing mixer, like KitchenAid or Bosch, with dough-making attachments

Large bowl

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups warm water

1 1/2 tablespoons SAF instant yeast

3/4 tablespoon sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

5 1/2 cups flour

(Note: place your pizza stone on bottom rack and preheat oven to 500 for one hour before pizzas are ready to bake.)

Pour water into mixing bowl. Stir yeast and sugar into warm water and let yeast expand for a minute. Add salt and stir. Gradually add flour, up to 3 cups, using whisk attachment. Switch to kneading paddle and add more flour, up to 5 cups. If dough is still smearing sides of bowl, add remaining 1/2 cup flour and mix for 5 to 6 minutes. Dough should be sticky, but should also mostly pull together away from the bowl. 

Scrape dough into a large bowl sprayed with olive oil. Spray top of dough ball with oil and cover. Let raise 20 minutes. Once raised, it should look like it has doubled in size. Remove from bowl, knead a couple times to deflate and form large ball. Pinch dough into about 5 portions for personal-size pizzas or 2 or 3 portions for 12-inch pizzas. Roll at least to 1/4" thinness, spread toppings and bake all before dough can rise some more.

Depending on toppings, dough should cook in 8 to 12 minutes, sporting a golden crust stiff to the touch. Let pizzas set a few minutes before slicing. Enjoy!

Pictured here from bottom to top, some favorites: classic pepperoni, margarita, sweet craisin brie pecan, and salted cheesy bread.

Salted Cheesy Bread

Spread dough with olive or vegetable oil (about 1 tablespoon). Sprinkle kosher or large-flake salt across pie. Sprinkle with your favorite cheese blend (Costco has an awesome 3-cheese blend...but it's also 5 pounds, so...invite lots of friends?). Bake about 8 minutes until golden and bubbly.

Sweet Craisin Brie Pecan

I looooove this pizza. Mostly sweet with a whisper of savory cheeses and a nutty snap—so good. Spread enough (about 2 tablespoons) brown sugar to cover crust minus edges. Sprinkle on 1/3 cup craisins and 1/3 cup chopped pecans. Now I love Brie cheese, so I pretty much use a whole wheel for one pizza. It's sort of mild and can be overpowered easily, so drop plenty of dollops around the pizza. I fill in any holes with chunks of mozzarella cheese. It helps. I've made it without and the pizza is fine, but somehow the mozzarella helps bring it all together. Bake about 10 minutes until crust is golden and cheeses are bubbly.

Margarita

This pizza can tend to get soggy. Be sure to thinly slice tomatoes, seed, and pat dry. You might even consider baking the crust a few minutes first, placing the toppings, then baking again until cheese is melted and bubbly. Place tomatoes and slices or chunks of mozzarella. You can put fresh basil on before or after baking, either way. Remove from oven and let set a few minutes. Drizzle lightly with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.

Pepperoni

Sauce, pepperoni, cheese, bake, done.

Personal Pizzas 

These are the greatest kid-friendly dinner since each one gets to choose their favorite toppings. Two personal-size pizzas can usually fit on my pizza stone at once, and that's helpful because we don't want too many pizzas waiting in line to enter the oven. The kitchen will be toasty with that 500-degree oven and as the dough sits, it keeps raising, and pizzas toppings slide as the dough mutates beneath. If too many pizzas are waiting at once, toss them in the fridge until their number is called.