Here's my favorite pizza dough recipe:
* 3/4 cup warm water
* 1 tsp. white sugar
* 1 packet of yeast
* 2-2.5 cups flour
* 1 tablespoon olive oil
Mix water, sugar and yeast in a mixing bowl. Let sit for a few minutes until yeast bubbles and mixture becomes fragrant.
Add salt, flour and olive oil. Knead by hand or on the low setting in a mixer fitted with a dough hook. (call me craze but I love to knead by hand)
Leave the dough in a bowl and let it sit in a dry place for about 4 hours. (I let my dough rise by a sunny window.)
When you are ready to bake, prep your ingredients and preheat the oven to 425*. Our new pizza prep involves a pre-heated pizza stone and pizza peel.
Roll out your dough with a rolling pin and extra white flour. To help keep the pizza from sticking, I rub on a little bit of olive oil on the pizza stone before I pre-heat it.
Here's the toppings I used for this pizza:
* your favorite pesto spread
* already cooked chicken and cut into small pieces
* fresh mazzarella cheese
Helpful hint:
after you have pre-heated your pizza stone, I like to place my dough on it first and bake it four about 5-7 minutes before adding the toppings. This helps the crust from becoming to doughy.
Enjoy!
