Best Homemade Pizza Crust

• Vegan

• Baking & Spices

  • 4 cups All purpose flour plus
  • 1 1/2 tsp Salt
  • 2 1/4 tsp Yeast, Instant dry

• Oils & Vinegars

  • 2 tbsp Olive oil, Extra Virgin

• Liquids

  • 1 1/4 cup Tap water
  • 1/2 cup Water

Found on naivecookcooks.com

Description

Ingredients

• ½ cup warm water (around 110 F)
• 2+1/4 tsp instant dry yeast (1 envelope)
• 1+1/4 cup room temperature tap water
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 4 cups all purpose flour plus extra for dusting the work surface ( 22 ounces)
• 1.5 tsp salt

Directions

• Take warm water in a bowl. To it add yeast and let it sit undisturbed for 5-10 minutes until yeast starts to get active.
• Once active, add the remaining 1+1/4 cups water and oil and stir. In a large bowl, take all purpose flour. To it add salt and stir. Now add this oil-water-yeast mixture to it and using a wooden spoon or any sturdy spoon stir it around. Mix it until it all comes together. If you feel its still dry, then add 1 tbsp more water. Transfer it to a very lightly floured work surface and knead this dough for 8 minutes until smooth and supple. Do not add flour while kneading or it will make the pizza tough and leathery.
• Transfer this dough ball to a greased bowl and cover tightly with a plastic wrap. Covering tightly is important as it maintains the moisture content in the dough. Let the dough rise in a warm spot for 2 hours or until double.
• If you are making this dough in the morning and wanting to let it rise all day until dinner time, then leave it to rise on your counter instead of keeping it in a warm spot.
• Once double in size, divide the dough into 3 equal sized parts. Cover 2 of the dough balls in 2 individual bowls with a moist cloth while you work on first dough ball.
• If you have a pizza stone, keep it in the middle rack in oven and pre heat oven for 30 mins to 500F. DO NOT ROLL THE DOUGH USING ROLLING PIN as it takes out too much air and makes the dough tough! I just learnt it and this makes such a big difference!
• Using your hands press the dough to a round circle, then by keeping one hand in the center of dough, stretch the dough on a floured surface. Sprinkle flour generously on a parchment paper. Place the stretched out dough on a floured parchment paper and if the dough shrinks a bit, stretch it again. Place this parchment paper dough on a pizza peel if you have one or pizza baking sheet.
• Now prick the dough using a fork but leave the edges as you want the edges to puff up but not anywhere else. Spread a thin layer of oil all over the dough. Then is using pizza sauce, spread pizza sauce, cheese, veggies or meat if using and more cheese.
• Now if you have a pizza stone then gently slide the parchment paper with dough on pizza stone. I like to keep parchment paper with my pizza as I find it easier to handle. If you dont have pizza stone, then simple keep the whole thing in the middle rack and bake for about 10-11 minutes.
• Once you start to see cheese bubbling and crust golden, you know pizza is done! To pull it out of oven, I take my pizza baking sheet near the middle rack and pull out the cooked pizza along with parchment paper onto baking sheet. Cut using a pizza cutter and enjoy!