Quick and Easy Pizza Dough

I will never, ever buy pizza dough again (and this from a lover of Trader Joe's and Fresh and Easy's Pizza Dough).  And by the way...I NEVER make only one recipe of this at a time. I always double or triple it.

Notes:
~Everything you need for this dough should be a kitchen staple. If it's not a staple in your kitchen, it is now! :o)
~If you have a large family, or bake often, buy yeast at Costco and store it tightly sealed in the freezer (Like in a Ziplock Bag). If you rarely use it, buy it in individual packets (they come in 3’s) and store it in the refrigerator.
~If you are using a bread machine, just dump all the ingredients in and select “dough”
~My flour is a 60-40 mix of white flour and whole wheat flour that I mix myself. Any flour will work.

Prep Time: 20 minutes
Bake Time: 15 minutes at 425
Yield: Dough for 1 pizza, 1 Stromboli, or 12-16 breadsticks or Pizza Sticks

Tools: Large mixing bowl and wooden spoon -or- Electric Stand mixer, preferably with bread hook attached, or Bread Machine.

What you will need:

3/4 Cup Water
1 teaspoon yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
2 1/4 cups of flour
1 teaspoon of salt
1 Tbsp of Olive oil

Start with:

3/4 Cup Water at about 100 degrees. It should feel about the same as your body temp.
1 teaspoon yeast
1 teaspoon sugar

In a clean glass bowl or measuring cup, gently stir the sugar and then yeast into the warm water.
Let sit until there are lots of bubbles on top, or about 10 minutes.

Why does the mixture bubble? Yeast is a living organism that needs fuel, in this case sugar. It grows best in warm temperatures (hence the warm water), and as it feeds off the sugar it produces carbon dioxide (hence the bubbles) and alcohol (which is burned off in the baking process). The reason flour tastes like sawdust, but bread tastes sweet, is not as much a result of the 1 measly teaspoon of sugar we added, but because the activate yeast is breaking down the starch in the flour and releasing the sugar. For this reason, the longer you let your dough rise (in the next step) the fuller and sweeter of a flavor you will achieve.

Meanwhile
In a mixing bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer, combine:
2 1/4 cups of flour
1 teaspoon of salt
Optional:
1 Tbsp garlic powder (for pizza or stromboli)
2 teaspoons each of garlic powder and italian seasoning (for breadsticks)
1 Tbsp cinnamon (for dessert breadsticks)

When the yeast is nice and bubbly, add it to the flour mixture. Scrape all the yeast out if it sticks.

Start the mixer or start mixing, and slowly pour in:
1 Tbsp of Olive oil (a different oil would work, this tastes best)

Keep Mixing. If you are doing this by hand, at some point you will need to use your hands instead of a spoon.

Bread dough is different from pancake batter or cookie dough? Why? The yeast.  Cookies, waffles, pancakes and Quick Breads are best if stirred as little as possible once the flour is put in. They need just enough stirring to get the ingredients combined, and then STOP. Bread dough likes to be touched, so mix or knead it for up to 8 minutes.

You can stop mixing when you have one solid lump or ball of dough, no flour showing, and the dough is slightly sticky.

At this point you have many options:
1. Let the dough rise in the bowl (this is for those of you who plan ahead with perfect timing. I never get to choose this option)
2. Put the dough in a Ziplock bag and put it in the frige for later.
3. Roll the dough out on a floured cutting board.

Now you have made Pizza Dough!

For fun, let’s make something with it.

Let’s pretend we chose Door #3 (roll it out) and let’s also pretend we are making pizza sticks, because that’s what I made when Stephanie requested this recipe.

 Disclaimer. We have now exited healthy and entered kid-pleasing-healthier-than-take-out

Flour your counter, a cutting board or a rolling mat. “Flour” means sprinkle about 2 Tablespoons of flour on a surface, and then spread it around with your hand. This keeps the dough from sticking to your surface.

Drop your ball of dough onto the floured surface and use your hand to flatten it.

Either use a rolling pin or stretch the dough with your hands to make a rectangle, about 10 by 14 inches. I use the back of my largest cutting board as my surface and roll the dough to fit it.

Use a knife or a pizza cutter to cut lengthwise down the dough, and then make 5-7 vertical cuts, Presto! 12-16 pieces.

Now, lay a clean dish towel over the whole thing and let it sit for 10 minutes.

Clean up while you wait ;o)

After 10 minutes the sticks should be puffier. You can let them rise anywhere from 10-30 minutes. If it’s very cold in your house (I live in the desert, this never happens to me), wait a little longer.

Transfer them to your baking sheet (I love my stones from Pampered Chef--the bottom never burns--but your standard cookie sheet can do the trick).

Brush them with melted butter. Or don’t. You could use garlic butter (melted butter with a little garlic powder stirred in). Your choice. I like to let the kids to this when we do it.

Layer your favorite toppings on.
Cover with shredded Mozzerella.

Bake in a pre-heated 425 degree oven until cheese is bubbly, or about 12-15 minutes.

Dip in your favorite sauce and enjoy.

Oh, you need a sauce recipe? Click here.

When I make these, I make a double batch, under-cook a full pan (cook until they are starting to get melty, but the dough is still very soft), let them cool on a rack, carefully place a single layer in a big Ziplock and put them in the freezer flat. When my 3 Moose want something to Munch on, I simply pull out enough sticks, and bake them in the toaster oven at 450 for about 15 minutes.