Homemade Pizza Dough

Our Valentine’s Day Pizza. This dough recipe made 3 of these personal sized pizzas! I’ve been told I can do heart shaped pizzas anytime I want to. Like, say, next week. *wink*

Recently, I tweeted something about making homemade pizza and a friend asked for the recipe. I went searching on the blog for it, since I was certain I had blogged the recipe at some point in the past. Especially considering we have homemade pizza nearly every Friday night; it’s our tradition. (Barring any big national holidays)

However, I was dumbfounded to discover that in all the years of making pizza I’ve never posted the dough recipe. So, let’s remedy that!

Like all bread dough recipes, this does take some effort. Typically, I start around 4 pm and we eat pizza by 6:30. So far, after years of eating it, we still love it — I guess it’s worth the time investment to keep up the tradition! The process is easy, so don’t let the time investment deter you. 

I found a version of this recipe online years ago: however, I have no memory of where. Somewhere along the way I modified the recipe a bit, memorized it, and never looked back. It’s not a thin chewy crust, this is more like a deep dish, bread pizza. My family prefers that, so it works for us. 

The recipe will make one large baking sheet sized pizza. Or (on Valentine’s Day) 3 really large heart-shaped pizzas!

I apologize for the lack of photos. But alas, during the winter, by the time we actually eat dinner the light has long past fled for the next day. So, use your imagination! Recipe under the jump.

Homemade Pizza Dough

Ingredients:

• 2 TB active dry yeast (if you buy individual packets, not in bulk: just use 2)
• 1 cup very warm water
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2-3 TB Agave (you can substitute honey here, if you’d prefer)
• 1/2 t salt (we omit–but I can imagine some people wanting it.)
• 3 to 3.5 cups of all-purpose flour

Directions: 

1. In a large bowl or mixer, proof the yeast in the warm water, agave, and olive oil. Let sit for 10 minutes until it’s nice and bubbly. 
2. Gradually mix in 3 to 3.5 cups of flour. Once all the dough is incorporated, knead it for a few minutes to make sure it’s nice and springy. 
3. Place dough in an olive oil coated bowl, cover, and place in a warm spot to rise for 45 minutes. 
4. Punch down dough and let rise a second time for 30 minutes. Preheat your oven to 325. 
5. I roll out this dough on a parchment lined cookie sheet. I roll the edges a bit so that the edge of the crust is nice and chewy.  If making heart shaped, simply divide the dough into thirds and hand press a general shape of a heart. Then roll the dough. I then roll the edges when I’m finish and transfer to a parchment baking sheet. 
6. Top your dough and then bake for 20-25 minutes at 325.