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.We like to make and eat pizza at our house. Here's the recipe and technique that I use. 1 Large Pizza 1 Cup Warm water 1 Tablesppon Sugar 1 Tablespoon Oil ( I prefer Olive Oil) 1 1/2 Tsp Salt 2 Tsp Dry Active Yeast Approz 4 cups of flour Apprx 1/4 cup of Corn Flour About the ingredients. The water should be warm, not hot to the touch. Heat kills the yeast.Too cold extends the time for the dough to rise. Should be about 125 - 140 degrees. I buy the yeast in bulk from Costco. The two teaspoons would probably be two packages (1 oz each?) that is sold in the supermarket. I use a high-gluten, or bread flour. It amkes the crust chewier with larger air bubbles. General purpose flour is an adequate substitute. I never measure the flour directly, Dough is effectd by humidity and heat so some days you use a little more, some days less. . Put the water , sugar and oil in a mixing bowl and stir. Put one cup of flour into another bowl and stir in the salt. Add the yeast to the four mixture and stir. Add the flour mixture to the water and mix. The batter will be about the consistency of a thick pancake batter. Use dough hooks on the mixer at this time if you have them. Add flour to the mixture a bit at a time. The dough should start to stretch and cling to the hooks on the blender. Scrape the sides of the bowl and keep adding flour until it begins to pull away from the side of the bowl. You'll want to add enough flour to be able to handle the dough. It is OK if it sticks to you hands a bit. You can always add more flour when needed. Don't add too much flour or the dough will be stiff and not rise properly. Continue mixing (5 minutes or so) until the flour is mixed into the dough and the dough pulls away from the side of the bolwl. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface. Knead the dough by pushing it away from you and then folding it back . Rotate the dough abit and repeat for about 5 miutes adding flour as needed to keep it form sticking. The dough should feel silky, or smooth. Kneading develops the gluten in the dough. The gluten acts like a balloon. As gas bubbles develop in the dough the gluten forms a bubble. The gluten also makes the finished bread , or crust, chewy, not crumbling like a cake. You may not get it right the first time. The dough will still be OK for pizza. Form the dough into a ball, place it into an oiled bowl and roll it around so that all of the surface gets oiled. Cover with plastic wrap, or a towel and let it rise until doubled. The time needed to doubled depends on the room temperature - warmer is faster, the freshness of the yeast, and how dry the dough is. Allow an hour or two. Once the dough has doubled knead it for a couple of minutes. The purpose here is to remove most of the air in the dough. Let the dough "rest" for about 5 minutes. Otherwise it will be too tigh and difficult to work with. Roll the dough out and place on an a pizza pan or cookie sheet. If pan is solid I sprinkle Corn Meal on the pan first. If the pan is peforated I oil it. Top with your favorite sauce and topping. Bake for about 8-9 miutes at 400 degree. Remove from pan and bake for another 6-7 minutes.
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