Basic Pizza Dough

We've made homemade pizza dough about once a month for the past....six or seven years. It never comes out the same. Sometimes it's tough. Sometimes it's doughy. I am not a pizza guru - this is not how to make exquisite, authentic pizza. But it's always edible and I am not enough of a baker to care about nailing down how the humidity or temperature was different each time. In true Smitten Kitchen fashion, it's dependable and it's not fussy.

Basic Pizza Dough
Adapted from The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook

3/4 cup warm water
1/2 tsp. active dry or RapidRise yeast
2 cups flour, plus more for counter and as needed
1 1/4 tsp. kosher salt
Olive oil, for coating bowl
Extra flour and cornmeal, for baking

- Pour warm water into the bowl of electric mixer, sprinkle yeast over water, and let it stand for 5 minutes.
- Add flour and salt (do not forget salt!), then mix with dough hook for about 5 minutes.
- Coat the inside of another large mixing bowl with olive oil while waiting.
- Knead dough on floured surface for a minute or two to make sure everything is properly combined and dough is relatively springy.
- Place dough in oiled bowl, cover, and place in fridge for 8+ hours OR room temperature for 4+ hours. If using fridge, add time for dough to come back to room temp before rolling out.
- Once dough has finished doubling, cover pizza peel lightly with flour and cornmeal. Turn dough out onto the peel and slowly work on stretching and expanding dough to desired shape and size. We sometimes use a rolling pin (heresy, I know). If dough is still stretchy (this is good), take your time and exercise patience. Walk away, give it a few minutes, and try again. Add pizza stone to oven and preheat.
- Add ingredients. Be sure to shake peel occasionally to make sure pizza has not become stuck.
- Transfer pizza to stone in oven and bake at 550 degrees (or high as oven will get) on pizza stone for 10 to 12 minutes.