Pizza Dough

Whenever someone asks me, "Is there anything else I can help you with?"  I have been known to respond with, "World peace. A paid off mortgage. A good recipe for pizza crust." I am not sure why that last one has been as elusive as the first two in the list but behold!  I am now on the hunt for a new third thing to need help.

For my 63 birthday, I received a Piezano pizza oven from my wife. The device sits on the countertop and heats itself to 800° F. It should also be stated that most kitchen ovens max out at 500° F. 

With such a hot oven, I suspected a dough needed to be fairly loose ("wet").  I was happy to see the oven also came with a small recipe book.  I was greeted with "Basic Pizza Dough Recipe".  Despite the modest name, it created a crust that was crisp on the outside and tender on the inside. This is a wet dough and therefore feels like a sticky mischievous mess. I found I needed to dust with flour more excessively than I would for say a bread dough recipe.  Enjoy!

Makes 2 10-11" Pizzas

Ingredients

• 1¼ cups warm water (110° F to 115° F)
• 2 tsp honey
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 package (2½ tsps) active dry yeast
  
  
• 3 cups (360 grams or 12.7 oz) all purpose flour
• 1 tsp fine sea salt

Directions

• Measure water into a 2-cup measuring cup or small bowl.
• Add honey, olive oil and yeast to the water and stir.
  
  
• Using a food processor add the dry ingredients to the bowl and pulse for until combined.
• While the food processor is running slowly pour the yeast mixture into the processor and let it run for about 1 minute until a dough ball forms, then run for one minute longer until the dough ball cleans the sides of the food processor.
• Place the dough on a floured baking sheet and cover with plastic wrap.
• Let the dough rise in a warm place until it doubles in size, about 1 hour.
  
  
• Divide the dough in half and gently roll each half into a dough ball.
• On a floured surface, press out the pizza dough to a 10-11" circle.
• The pizza dough is ready for baking.

Tip: You can freeze the dough ball for future use, or you can press it out and freeze as well.  Also, you can add some extra flour if the dough is sticky.