Pizza Dough

Well, hello readers! It has certainly been a while. I've been VERY busy these past few months. Jake and I finally got married, we honeymooned in Jamaica, and now we are settling into married life. Although it pretty much feels the same as pre-married life. Oh, except Jake now wears a wedding band - that's pretty great!

You could probably guess that the two months leading up to the wedding were very hectic. I'd like to pretend that I still found time to make dinner for Jake and myself, but if I'm being honest? We ate a lot of cereal for dinner. And pasta. And Panera. Don't get me wrong, I love me some Panera, but you can only eat so much of it before you're craving a delicious home-cooked meal. 

I can't believe how many amazing and generous gifts we received from our wedding guests. I used quite of few of said gifts while making this recipe for Pizza Dough, so that was awesome!

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cups warm water (100 - 110 degrees)
• 2 1/2 tsp active dry yeast (or two envelopes)
• 2 tsp red wine vinegar
• 3 Tbsp olive oil, plus some for greasing
• 4 cups flour
• 2 tsp sugar
• 1 Tbsp kosher salt
• Cornmeal or flour for dusting

How to:

• Combine water, yeast, vinegar, and 3 Tbsp olive oil in bowl of a stand mixer fitted with dough hook. Mix on low speed until just blended (~30 seconds).
• Add 1 cup of the flour and mix on low speed for 30 seconds. 
• In a separate bowl, mix together remaining flour, sugar, and salt. 
• Add the flour mixture to the wet dough mix in 3 batches, beating on low speed after each addition until thoroughly combined.
• Once all the flour has been added, raise the mixer speed to medium and mix for 2 more minutes. The dough will pull away from the sides of the bowl, will come together in a bowl, and will feel soft to the touch.
• Place the ball of dough in a well-oiled bowl and turn it several times to coat the surface lightly with oil. Cover the bowl with a clean kitchen towel, and let the dough rest at room temperature for 30 minutes.
• Divide the dough into two equal portions* and roll each piece into a smooth ball. Place the balls on a baking sheet and cover with a damp kitchen towel. Let the dough rest for 10 minutes.
• Use dough immediately, refrigerate up to 4 hours, or freeze.**

*Alternatively, divide the dough into 6 equal portions to make individual pizza crusts.

**If you've chilled the dough, allow it to warm to room temperature prior to rolling it out.

I used a pizza peel (wedding gift!) dusted with cornmeal as a working surface to stretch the dough on (I just used my hands). You can use flour to prevent the dough from sticking to your surface before stretching it out if you don't have any cornmeal on hand. I also cooked the pizzas on a pizza stone (another wedding gift!), and found that it worked great for evenly cooking the crust.

Clearly, I didn't get too crazy with this pizza - just cheese for a topping. The individual pizzas cooked very quickly (only about 6-8 minutes at 450 degrees on the pizza stone). I froze the remaining portions of dough and will certainly be cooking those up soon! This recipe is very easy, and tastes great. It passed the Jake pizza test, so I'd say it's a winner!

This recipe is from Williams-Sonoma Bride & Groom Cookbook (another wedding gift!).