How to Make Pizza Dough

Making pizza dough is not as complicated as it sounds. If you have about an hour and a half to spare you too can make homemade hand tossed delicious pizza dough. Folding the dough over and over is the hardest part of making pizza dough and it will take anywhere from 20 to 25 minutes of kneading to get the mixture to the correct consistency.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• 5 1/3 cups of flour
• 1 2/3 cups of water
• 2 1/2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 2 1/2 teaspoons of salt
• 2 1/2 tablespoons of yeast
• 2 Large mixing bowls
• 1 Large flat surface
• Rolling pin
• A moist towel

1. 
   Be sure to pour the flour into the bowl first.

   Pour the water into the large bowl first then the flour, salt, yeast and olive oil.

2. 
   Mixing with your hands allows you to feel the texture of the dough.

   Once you have all the ingredients in the bowl mix them together with your hands.

3. 
   Kneading the dough is the hardest but most important part of the pizza dough making process.

   When the mixture starts to stick together take it out of the bowl and place it on the flat clean surface and begin kneading the mixture.

4. 
   If the dough is not covered it will get hard and not rise properly

   Knead the dough until it starts to feel smooth and then place the mixture in a large clean bowl and cover with a moist towel for an hour to allow the dough to rise.

5. 

   After the dough rises take the dough and place it on a well floured flat surface and flatten the dough as much as possible with your hands. Take your rolling pin and continue to flatten the dough on the floured surface by moving the rolling pin back and forth over the dough.

Tips & Warnings

• Now that the dough is flat place it on a pizza pan and poke holes into it with a fork to prevent air bubbles from forming in the crust.
• After you put the sauce and toppings on the dough brush the exposed dough with olive oil. This will give the crust a nice light golden color.
• Bake the dough at 400 degrees for about 25 minutes.

[Karenc1972]

on 4/4/2009 Excellent recipe! Thanks for sharing!

[athome]

on 3/31/2009 This came out very good only a little dough left over that I let my son play with. 5 if I could rate again :)

[victoria37]

on 3/30/2009 i love making pizza. i'll have to give this recipe a try :)

[athome]

on 3/16/2009 I printed this off I will let you know how it came out. 5*

[Glencap]

on 2/24/2009 This is just what I needed. Thank you so much for sharing. Saved to favorites file with a strong and enthusiastic author recommendation.