We love pizza in our family. It’s always a fun family dinner. Usually we always eat dinner at the kitchen table. Pizza night is different. Pizza around here usually means dinner on the couch in front of a movie. Pizza & Movie Night is one of our favorite low-key family activities. For years, we ordered out, then we tried frozen, finally we made the jump to homemade. I was always nervous about it, but decided it was worth a try. If it was a total disaster, we had frozen pizza in the freezer.
A tried a few different recipes and eventually come up with my own. My favorite required me to mix it by and and knead by hand. I’m not that kind of mom. My KitchenAid is my BFF. It is pretty simple, and I always have the ingredients on hand. My family LOVES pizza, and we are not small eaters and love leftover pizza, so the recipe makes 3 pizzas. You can freeze or refrigerate the remaining dough to use later. I love using this dough for regular pizza and breakfast pizza.
Supplies:
- Stand Mixer with dough hook
- Large Metal Mixing Bowl
- Pizza Stone (you can also use a sheet pan)
- Kitchen thermometer
- Wet & Dry measuring cups and spoons
- Rolling Pin
Ingredients:
- For Dough
- 4.5 cups All Purpose Flour
- 3.75 tsp. Instant Yeast (roughly 1.5 packets)
- 1.5 TB Sugar
- 1TB Kosher Salt
- 1.5 cups warm (100-115 degrees) water
- 1.5 TB Canola oil
- For Pizza
- Marinara sauce
- 1 lb Shredded Mozzerella Cheese
- Optional Toppings:
- Pepperoni
- Mushrooms
- Olives
- Cooked sausage
- Whatever you can think up!
Step 1: In the bowl of your stand mixer, add the sugar, yeast and warm water and give it a quick stir. The water should be between 100-115 degrees. If the water is too hot it will kill the yeast and your dough will not rise. I use warm tap water, and double check the temperature with my kitchen thermometer. Allow the sugar, yeast and water to sit for 5 minutes, until it gets foamy. I usually take this time to gather the rest of my ingredients.
Step 2: Measure out the flour into a metal mixing bowl. When yeast mixture is foamy, add salt, oil and 2 cups of flour. Using the dough hook, mix on low. Continue to add flour slowly as it combines. The dough will look pretty shaggy. I usually stop the mixer and use my hands to knead in the excess flour if needed, then continue to let the mixer knead the dough. (If the dough is too dry and still breaking apart, wet your hands and knead the dough a few times with wet hands. This usually gives it the tiny bit of moisture that it needs.
Step 3: Let the stand mixer knead dough for about 5 minutes. I stop the mixer and flip the dough periodically, so it kneads evenly. Remove from the mixer and place in an oiled bowl to rise. I use the same bowl I used for the flour, because I hate doing dishes. I spray the bowl with canola oil, place the dough in the bowl, and spray the dough lightly. Then cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise for about 30 minutes. I use the keep warm setting on my oven for about 10 minutes before I shut it off and allow the dough to rise in there. Any warm place will do. Sometimes I preheat the oven, and place the covered bowl on the stove so it gets some of the residual heat.
Step 4: Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Make sure you put the pizza stone in the oven as it preheats. You want the stone to be hot! That’s what makes the pizza so awesome.
Step 5: While the oven is preheating, separate the dough into 3 equal parts. I usually eyeball it, but you can use a kitchen scale to be more precise. Roll out 1 piece at a time, I use a rolling pin and turn the dough several times to get something resembling a circle. Some days it comes out rounder than others, it really depends on how much effort I feel like putting in.. rectangle pizza tastes just as good as circle pizza. When the oven is ready, I stretch the dough a bit by hand. I hold it vertically, while turning slightly until I make my way all the way around.
Step 6: CAREFULLY, remove the stone from the oven. Oven mitts are your BFF here! Place the dough on the stone, add the sauce and cheese. I like my pizza a little less saucy, so I only use 1/3 cup of sauce per pizza, but a 1/2 cup per pizza is a pretty normal amount of sauce. Then add about 1 cup of cheese. If you are using toppings, add them and then another sprinkle of cheese. Our family usually makes 1 plain, and 2 pizzas with mushrooms and olives. I sauteed the mushrooms ahead of time and ring them out by hand so the pizza doesn’t get soggy. Once your pizza is put together, return the stone to the oven and bake for 10-12 minutes. Usually while the first pizza bakes, I prep the next and so on. If your first pizza is a little cold, I put it back into the hot oven for a minute or so while I get the table ready.
Pizza
Equipment
- Stand Mixer
- Pizza Stone
- Metal Bowl
- Rolling Pin
Ingredients
- 4 ½ cups All Purpose Flour
- 3 ¾ tsp Dry Active Yeast
- 1 ½ tbsp Sugar
- 1 tbsp Kosher Salt
- 1 ½ cups Warm Water Between 100-115 degrees Fahrenheit
- 1 ½ tbsp canola oil
- 1½ cups marinara sauce
- 3-4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
Instructions
- Add yeast, sugar and warm water to the bowl of stand mixer. Give it a quick stir and let sit until yeast gets foamy.
- Add salt, oil and about 2 cups of flour. Mix on low, adding the remaining flour slowly until it is all Incorporated. The dough will look a little shaggy. Shut off the mixer, and knead it by hand to mix in any dry bits from the bottom of the mixer. If the dough is still too dry, knead by hand a few times with wet hands.
- Allow the mixer to knead the dough for about 5 minutes. I stop the mixer periodically and flip the dough around so it kneads it evenly.
- Place dough in an oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Allow to rise for 30 minutes.
- Separate dough into 3 equal parts, and roll each out to about a 12 inch circle.
- Place on hot pizza stone, add ⅓-½ cup of sauce, 1 cup of cheese and whatever toppings you like. Return stone to oven and bake for 10-12 minutes.