Pizza Dough
Necessities
- Large bowl
- 350 grams of all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon of salt
- 2 teaspoons of dried yeast
- 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
- 250ml lukewarm water
- Parchment paper
How to prepare
Sieve the flour, the yeast and the salt into a large bowl. Make a little hole in the middle, add the olive oil and pour in the water bit by bit. Stir in the water and as soon as the dough comes together, you have to go in with your (clean!) hands and start kneading the dough. (Note, it is not necessary to add all the water, some flour types need more water than others). When all the flour is incorporated, put the dough on a lightly dusted kitchen counter and continu to knead for at least 5 minutes.
Put a little bit of olive oil in a clean large bowl and grease the bottom and sides with your fingers. Put the dough in the large bowl and cover it with foil or with a clean towel. The dough needs to rest for at least one hour and preferable in a warm place (I always put the bowl on the window-sill or next to a heater).
After the proofing of the dough (it will expand to two times its original size!), you have to push in the dough to get most of the air out. I always eyeball the size of the dough balls that I use, but if you are a perfectionist, you can divide the dough into eight small balls or four/five big ones.
Put one ball on a lightly dusted surface and use a rolling pin to flatten the dough. Now the fun starts: add your favourite ingredients to the pizza and put it on a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Put it in the oven at 200 degrees Celsius for about 10 minutes. Check if the crust is crispy and golden brown and your pizza is ready!
You can freeze the pizzas after you baked them. Make sure to take them out of the oven a bit earlier so that once taken from the freezer, you can put them straight into the oven again. Before freezing, I always wrap the pizza in parchment paper and in foil to make sure it does not dry out.
Enjoy!
