The pizza dough recipe

By popular request... by the way, Canadian Living magazine does a GREAT job of testing its recipes. I love them and this is from one of my favourite cookbooks. They have a website with plenty more recipes: www.canadianliving.com

And no, I don't work for them! :)

HANDMADE PIZZA DOUGH

From The Canadian Living Cookbook

2 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 tsp quick-rising (instant) dry yeast
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup hot water (120 deg F)
2 tsp olive oil

In bowl, combine flour, yeast and salt. With wooden spoon, gradually stir in water and oil until dough forms, using hands if necessary.

Turn out onto lightly floured surface, knead for 8 minutes or until smooth and elastic. With floured hands, shape into smooth ball. Place in greased bowl, turning to grease all over. Cover with plastic wrap; let rise in warm draft-free place for about 1 hour or until doubled in bulk.

Turn out onto lightly floured surface; divide in half and shape into disc. Roll out disc into 12-inch circle, letting dough rest, covered, if too elastic to roll. Place on large pizza. Let rest for 15 minutes. Press all over to form slightly raised rim.



After making the dough, you add your toppings and bake in a preheated 500F oven for about 12 minutes.


Variations:

Whole wheat or multi-grain pizza dough: Replace 1/2 cup of the all-purpose flour with whole wheat or multigrain flour (preferably bread flour.)

Herbed pizza dough: Flavour the dough by adding 1/2 tsp dried oregano to the dry ingredients.

For thin-crust pizza, bake shaped dough without letting it rise. For thicker crust, let shaped dough rise for up to 45 minutes.


My own variations:

I let it the shaped disc rise for 30 minutes, then I roll it out. I put the disk on an upside-down pizza pan covered (enough so that the dough will slide off it fairly easily) in cornmeal (because I don't own a pizza paddle!) I let it rest for 15 minutes, then poke some holes in it with a fork to stop bubbles forming as it bakes. I add the toppings, then slide the dough from the pan onto my pizza stone, which is in the oven already, preheated to 500F.