In a pinch, I pick up fresh pizza dough from Trader Joe’s refrigerated case. But I prefer to make my own, because it’s just so dang easy. I’ve tried several dough recipes but found that using King Arthur Flour’s Perfect Pizza Flour Blend yields the very best results. This blend includes a natural conditioner that relaxes the dough so it doesn’t fight you when you roll or stretch it out. It bakes up beautifully and has a terrific flavor. If you don’t have Perfect Pizza Flour Blend, you can certainly use all-purpose flour, or swap in whole-wheat flour to your taste.
perfect homemade pizza dough Recipe
(makes 2 thin-crust 14 to 16-inch pizzas)
3 1/4 cups Perfect Pizza Flour or all-purpose flour or a mixture of all-purpose and whole-wheat flour
1 1/4 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 1/4 cups warm water
1 package instant yeast
In the bowl of a stand mixer, stir together flour, yeast and olive oil. Turn mixer on low and add warm water; stir just to combine, then sprinkle salt over dough and raise speed to medium-high. Let mixer knead for a couple of minutes until the dough is soft, smooth and just slightly sticky. (Alternately, place ingredients in a large bowl and mix by hand, then turn out onto a floured counter or pastry cloth and knead by hand.) Let rise for an hour if you have the time, or roll out immediately, either with a rolling pin or by stretching gently with your hands into a round.
If you'd like, divide the ball of dough in half; use one half immediately and wrap the other half tightly in plastic and freeze for a month or two. To use frozen dough, just remove from the freezer a day ahead and let thaw in the refrigerator; remove an hour before baking to bring dough to room temperature.
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Sounds delish. I am going to try and make this sometime this week. Is pizza flour similar to bread flour? Or will all purpose work? Just wondering if I need to go to the store for something other than all-purpose. Thanks!
Bridgid — all-purpose flour will work perfectly well for pizza dough. The pizza flour blend I get from King Arthur Flour is, I think, a little softer and it includes an extra ingredient that relaxes the dough and makes it easy to roll out. I’m not sure the difference between that and bread flour. But I’d use all-purpose flour to make pizza crust!
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