Pizza Dough Recipe

Basic Pizza Dough Recipe

In Italian, Pizza means Pie. The pizza dough is basically bread. Fresh bread dough is quite simple to make but it takes a little time. To get a great Italian pizza at the end of this labor of love…well, its time well spent.

This recipe gets you to the Italian pizza experience, or very close.

You need:

1 tsp yeast (fresh or dried)
6 tbsp lukewarm water
½ tsp sugar
1 tbsp olive oil
1 cup plain flour
1 tsp salt

Mix together the yeast, water and sugar in a clean and dry bowl. If you are using dried yeast, sprinkle over the water and sugar solution and mix till dissolved. Leave this bowl in a warm place until a froth forms on the top. Then stir in the olive oil.

In the meanwhile, sift together the flour and salt in a large bowl, mix these two dry ingredients well. Now, if your yeast mix is ready, make a well in the centre of the flour salt mix and pour the mixture in. Preferably with the hands, mix together and knead to make smooth dough. Remember to knead for at least five minutes, or until the dough is elastic and smooth to touch.

Wrap this dough in a greased plastic sheet and leave in a warm place for at least an hour. The dough should be fermented and swollen to at least twice its size in this duration.

Take it out of its wrapping, and knock it with your knuckles, again in a kneading motion, to release any air bubbles. This new, softer, smoother dough is your basic pizza dough.

There is also a healthier version of the pizza dough that uses a combination of whole wheat flour and plain flour, more whole wheat than flour. For this pizza dough recipe you need:

2 tsp sugar
1 ¼ cups warm water
1 tbsp active dry yeast
1 cup flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon salt
3 tbsp cup olive oil

The method of kneading out the dough is the same as with plain flour. The only difference is that whole wheat flour is less elastic than plain flour; you must add it in parts. So, after making the yeast mixture ready, combine 1 ½ cups of the whole wheat flour and 1 cup of plain flour and salt in a large bowl. Mix with the yeast mixture and knead well. The remaining whole wheat flour can be mixed when the dough is almost ready, to ensure that it is not sticky. Thereafter, continue kneading till it forms the same smooth, elastic dough. The rest of the procedure is the same.

A very interesting variation of the bread pizza dough base is the potato pizza dough recipe. This can be a great idea for using up boiled potatoes, and also be a tasty alternative to regular pizza.

Potato Pizza Dough Recipe

You need:

250 grams boiled potatoes
¼ cup butter
1 cup self raising flour
½ tsp salt

Sift together the flour and salt

If the potatoes are warm (or hot), mash the potatoes well, till they become an even paste and add the butter, then leave to cool. Add this flour salt mixture to the boiled potatoes and mix well together to form a soft dough.

If the potatoes are cold, mash them well and leave aside. In the flour salt mixture, rub in the butter with fingertips to a breadcrumb consistency. Then stir this into the mashed potatoes to form a soft dough.

This base can be used for making pizzas immediately. If you do not need it right away, then cover with a cling film and chill for up to two hours.

(A very special topping for a potato pizza base would be the Marinara topping - a cocktail of mixed seafood – prawns or shrimps, mussels, cockles and squid)

Another interesting variation is the Spinach and Ricotta Pizza Dough Recipe.
For this you need, in addition to the basic ingredients for the dough:

1 cup fresh spinach, lightly steams
1 cup ricotta cheese
1 egg

After making the yeast mixture, put the ricotta cheese and the spinach leaves in a blender and blend at high speed until you have a smooth, bright green mixture. Then sift together the salt and flour. Make a well in the center and pour in oil, the egg, the spinach mixture and the yeast mixture. Knead the mixture for 8 to 10 minutes until the dough is uniformly mixed and elastic.

Add flour as you knead if necessary to keep the dough from becoming too sticky. This new, green dough is an interesting playing field for a large variety of toppings and tastes.

The variations on pizza toppings are infinite, actually more than infinite in number, but more on that later.