Pizza Dough

7/8 – 1 cup warm water
1 teaspoon sugar
2 1/4 teaspoons yeast
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 1/2 cup flour

• 1 hour beforehand: remove yeast from fridge and let acclimate to room temperature.
• Combine water, sugar and yeast in a small bowl and leave for 10-15 minutes until frothy. The yeast should activate in the water and “look alive”. If they don’t, they may be dead or not yet acclimated to room temperature or your water may have been too hot/cold.
• Stir the olive oil into the activated yeast mixture.
• Whisk yeast mixture, salt and 1 cup of flour in a large plastic bowl.
• Switch to a wooden spoon and continue adding flour in 1/2 cup increments until dough forms a shaggy mass. Start kneading with your hands. After 5 minutes, let the dough rest for a minute or two before starting to knead again. Keep going until the ball is smooth and elastic.
• Coat the inside of a bowl with olive oil and then plop in the ball of dough.
• Cover the bowl with saran wrap and then a kitchen cloth and let sit in a warm corner of your kitchen until doubled ~ 2-3 hours.

Makes enough dough for 2 – 4 pizzas, depending on how big you make them.

Making the Pizza

• Preheat oven to 500°F.
• In a small bowl, combine a couple of tablespoons of olive oil and fresh minced garlic. Set aside for later.
• Drizzle olive oil onto pizza pans and smush it around with your hands to evenly coat.
• Uncover the dough and use your fist to gently deflate. Split the dough into the desired number of balls.
• Hold each ball in the air and gently start spreading it out. No need to toss it, but hey, be my guest. Once roughly circular, place it on a pan and start spreading outward. Flatten, spread, flatten, spread, rotating the pan as you go. Once it’s nice and evenly flat, move on to the remaining balls.
• Using a brush or the back of a spoon, coat pizzas with the garlic/olive oil mixture.
• Bake dough bases for 5-10 minutes, or until golden and starting to crisp.
• Remove from oven, top with desired toppings (sauce/pesto, cheese, veggies, pepperoni etc. etc.).
• Bake again for 10-15 minutes (check frequently as ovens vary). Move the pizzas around to achieve desired doneness on bottom and top.
• EAT.