Homemade Pizza Crust

Happy June!! It's no secret that one of my favorite things is second day, cold pizza! It's also no secret that my favorite blog to get recipes from is Carlsbad Cravings! So when I found this pizza crust recipe on Carlsbad cravings, I knew it was a match made in heaven! :) I should also mention that I really do love fresh pizza, but I always make sure to have at least a piece left over to eat the next day because that's my favorite way to eat pizza!

Start by adding 1 1/2 cups of water that is between 105 and 115 degrees Fahrenheit to the bowl of your Kitchen-Aid mixer (you could also do this by hand - just put the water in a regular bowl and mix with a wooden spoon). Add 1 tablespoon of sugar and 1 tablespoon of instant yeast to the warm water. You could use active dry yeast, but the dough will take longer to rise if you do.

Let the yeast sit in the water for about 10 minutes so that it foams like in the picture above.

Attach the dough hook to your mixer and mix in 1 teaspoon of salt, 1 tablespoon of olive oil and 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour. Mix these ingredients in until they are well combined. Then, gradually add 2 more cups of flour - the dough should begin to pull away from the sides of the bowl. If the dough is still really sticky, add up to 1/4 cup more flour, but add it 1 tablespoon at a time (4 tablespoons + 1/4 cup).

You should stop adding flour when the dough barely sticks to your fingers. Let the mixer knead the dough for 5 minutes at medium speed - if you are not using a mixer, do the kneading by hand! Once the dough has been kneaded, remove it from the bowl, shape it into a ball and place it back into a bowl coated with olive oil. Turn the dough around in the bowl so that all sides are covered in olive oil. Then, cover the bowl in plastic wrap and let the dough rise at room temperature until it has doubled in size (about 1-2 hours).

Once the dough has risen, punch it down and split it into 2 equal pieces. Cover the dough with a cloth and let it rise for 15 minutes longer. I put some flour on my dough because it was a little sticky after rising.

Roll out each piece of dough into about a 12'' circle and transfer it onto a baking sheet. My family has 2 round pizza baking sheets. Jen from Carlsbad Cravings details how she uses a baking stone, if you plan on going that route, check out her post HERE. I found that a plain baking sheet worked well, I might try the pizza stone in the future!

The baking sheet or pizza stone that you cook the pizza on should be coated with olive oil and a little bit of cornmeal. Then, once you put the crust down, brush some olive oil onto the crust and sprinkle a little garlic salt over the olive oil. 

Fold over the sides of the pizza dough to make the crust. Then dress the pizza with your favorite toppings. I used marinara sauce instead of pizza sauce, then I made one pizza with pepperoni and cheese and the other with pepperoni, cheese and red peppers.

Pre-heat the oven to 475 degrees Fahrenheit the bake the pizzas for 12 minutes. My cheese was golden after 12 minutes in the oven, but if needed, you could broil your pizza to brown the cheese. Let the pizza sit for a minutes before serving!

HOMEMADE PIZZA CRUST
yield: two 12'' pizzas

ingredients
1 1/2 cups of warm water (between 105 and 115 degrees Fahrenheit)
1 tablespoons of sugar
1 tablespoon of instant or active dry yeast (instant yeast will rise faster)
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon olive oil (+ more for bowl and baking sheet)
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (+1/4 cup more if needed)
Cornmeal
Garlic Salt

directions
1. Add the warm water, sugar and yeast to the of a Kitchen-Aid with the dough hook attached. All this mixture to sit for 10 minutes giving the yeast time to foam. [You could do this recipe by hand instead of using a Kitchen-Aid. If you are doing this, use a regular mixing bowl and a wooden spoon].
2. Mix in the salt, the olive oil and 1 1/2 cups of the all-purpose flour. Mix these ingredients in until they are well combined. Gradually add 2 more cups of flour - the dough should begin to pull away from the sides of the bowl. If the dough is still really sticky, add up to 1/4 cup more flour, but add it 1 tablespoon at a time (4 tablespoons + 1/4 cup).
3. You should stop adding flour when the dough barely sticks to your fingers. Let the mixer knead the dough for 5 minutes at medium speed. If you are not using a mixer, do the kneading by hand. Once the dough has been kneaded, remove it from the bowl, shape it into a ball and place it back into a bowl coated with olive oil. Turn the dough around in the bowl so that all sides are covered in olive oil. Then, cover the bowl in plastic wrap and let the dough rise at room temperature until it has doubled in size (about 1-2 hours).
4. Once the dough has risen, punch it down and split it into 2 equal pieces. Cover the dough with a cloth and let it rise for 15 minutes longer.
5.  Roll out each piece of dough into about a 12'' circle and transfer it onto a baking sheet. The baking sheet should be coated with olive oil and a little bit of cornmeal. Then, once you put the crust down, brush some olive oil onto the crust and sprinkle a little garlic salt over the olive oil.
6. Fold over the sides of the pizza dough to make the crust. Then dress the pizza with your favorite toppings.
7. Pre-heat the oven to 475 degrees Fahrenheit the bake the pizzas for 12 minutes. If needed, broil the pizzas for 2 minutes until the cheese is golden brown.

Let me know if you have questions!