HOW TO: Make homemade pizza dough

Homemade pizza is a great treat to make without having to spend $20 to have somebody deliver a couple boring dough frisbees in a cardboard box. 

Even after saying that, I do love me some delivery pizza, or even better, Papa Murphy's! However, all of those pale in comparison to homemade, from scratch pizza.

Ingredients:

- Whole wheat flour ~3 cups

- White flour ~4 cups

- 1 Tbsp sugar (I usually use brown sugar)

- 1 Tbsp salt

- 2 Tbsp olive oil (I usually use extra virgin, but the flavor doesn't really come out in the dough very much)

- 0.25 Oz (1 packet) active dry yeast

- 2.5 cups warm water (110 degrees or so)

- Small amount of corn meal

Tools:

- Pizza Stone

- Rolling pin (Optional)

- Non-stick pastry paper/silicone mat (Optional)

- Stand mixer or large prep bowl

- Large mixing bowl

- Damp Cloth

Instructions:

NOTE: You can adjust the balance of white and whole wheat flour to suit your tastes. The recipe this is derived from uses only 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour and the rest white, whereas you can probably do mostly whole wheat flour as well. I find it a little difficult to work with the dough if I use only whole wheat flour. 

1. In the stand mixer or large prep bowl, stir the yeast, the sugar, and the water together.




2. Let the yeast mixture sit for 10 minutes (until yeast activates)
3. Add 4 cups of flour (white and/or whole wheat), the olive oil, and salt to the yeast mixture, stirring it to a sticky consistency. (You may want to coat anything you're using to stir in oil to keep the sticking down)
   







4. Keep adding flour slowly and stirring until the dough pulls together into a ball and becomes more manageable.
   
   
   
   
5. Knead the dough (either by hand or by mixer) for 5 minutes or so, allowing the ball to become smooth. If you need to add some more flour because it's still too sticky, go ahead.
6. Oil the large mixing bowl, and roll the dough around in the bowl (to coat it in a light sheen of oil)
7. Cover the mixing bowl with a damp cloth and leave it in a warm place for 1hr
   
   

8. After an hour, punch down the dough on a lightly floured and cornmealed silicone mat (or any surface)
9. Divide the dough into 2 or 3 pieces. I find that 3 equal pieces of dough are just slightly too small for what we want, so I think that 2 large pieces and a third small one would be perfect for 2 pizzas and a side of breadsticks.
   
10. At this point you can either freeze the dough for later or roll it out to eat now
11. Preheat the oven to 425F, heating the pizza stone
    I find pizza stones to be mandatory to having a decent pizza crust. It cooks the crust from the bottom, which is much better.
12. Using a lightly floured rolling pin (or your hands) form the dough into a pizza crust. It should be thin, but not so thin that it won't support the toppings
13. Roll the edges over into a crust
14. Add toppings as you like.
    I find that too much sauce leaves a mushy dough that doesn't quite cook right. You may want to go easy on the sauce until you get a feel for how much is too much
15. Place the dough on the pizza stone and let it cook for 15-20 minutes, or until cheese is melted and crust is browned