Flavorful Homemade Pizza Crust
This pizza crust gets its flavor from a long rise (4 to 6 hours) that allows it to devlop a rich yeasty flavor.
You can use the dough after on an hour of rise, but it won’t have the rich flavor that a longer rise time develops.
The risen dough can be stored overnight in a zip lock bag in the fridge.
Allow dough to warm up to room temperature before pressing into a pizza pan.
Recipe Makes enough pizza dough for:
12-inch deep dish pizza or
14-inch regular crust pizza or
13 x 18-inch thin crust pizza (in a half-sheet pan).
Ingredients:
3/4 cup warm water (95 F to 105 F)
1 tsp granulated sugar
1 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup cornmeal
3/4 tsp table salt
1/4 cup olive oil
Directions:
In a cup of warm water, stir in the sugar and yeast until well mixed. Set aside until needed.
In a mixing bowl, stir together the flour, corn meal and salt. Mix well.
Stir the olive oil into the flour mixture. Mix until the mixture resembles cornmeal.
Stir in the water / sugar / yeast mixture. Mix well. Knead for 5 minutes.
Form dough into a ball and place in an oiled bowl.
Cover bowl and allow yeast to rise in a warm place for 4 to 6 hours. This allows the pizza to to develop a rich flavor.
After rise, punch down dough and allow it to rest for about 15 minutes.
For a deep dish pizza, press dough into a 12 inch deep dish pizza pan.
For a regular crust pizza, press dough into a 14 inch pizza pan.
For a thin crust pizza, press dough into a 13 x 18 inch half-sheet pan.
Cover pizza dough with your favorite sauce and toppings.
You don’t need to allow the dough to rise again, the heat of the oven will cause the dough to rise the proper amount while cooking.
Bake in a 425 F preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes.