pizza dough
- 1 cup room temperature beer
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp butter
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 3 cups plus 2 tbsp all purpose flour
- 2 - 3 tsp pizza (or instant) yeast (do not use traditional or active dry yeast)
Using a stand mixer and a dough hook, add ingredients to the bowl and mix for approximately 10 minutes or until well kneaded. Put into a large greased bowl and turn to coat. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and let rest for 70 minutes. Punch down. Cover tightly with plastic wrap again and let rest 20 - 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 425°F.
Portion dough into two pieces and roll each piece into a 12" circle. This dough can also be hand tossed.
Spread pizza sauce on top of dough. Add other toppings as desired.
Bake in oven for approximately 15 minutes. Slide pizza off of pan and back onto oven rack. Bake another 5 minutes to brown and crisp up the crust. Remove from oven and cut for serving.
Some suggested toppings include:
regular/spicy tomato sauce |
ranch dressing/white sauce |
pesto |
grilled onions |
sliced/diced raw onions |
artichoke hearts |
diced/sliced tomato |
green/red peppers |
mushrooms |
fresh basil/oregano |
garlic/roasted garlic |
pineapple (debatable) |
arugula |
spinach |
black/green olives |
bacon/back bacon |
chicken/bbq chicken |
beef |
pepperoni |
sausage |
ham |
mozzarella cheese |
cheddar cheese |
feta cheese |
Preheat oven to 450°F.
Spray pans with non-stick spray. Spread dough over pan. Add desired amount of sauce. Top with your favourite toppings.
Bake in oven for 15 minutes.
Recipe Hints
- You can hand mix the dough if you prefer. To make the mixing much easier, purchase a Danish Dough Whisk
- You can also place in a bread machine on the dough cycle. Leave the dough in the machine for the first rise. When complete, transfer to a greased bowl and let rest for 20 - 30 minutes.
- If you are baking two pizzas at the same time, about halfway through the baking process, swap the pizzas from rack to rack so each pizza gets the same amount of time nearest the heat.
- Slide pizza off of pan directly onto the oven rack and continue to bake for up to another 5 minutes. This will crisp up the crust.
- Don't have beer? You can use water - the taste will be slightly different
- Want to make the pizzas, but not bake them that day? Get your pizza ready for the oven, but instead, put a layer of plastic wrap, followed by a layer of foil and put in your freezer. When you are ready to have your next pizza, take it out of the freezer and let it come to room temperature on the counter (at least one hour). Then bake as usual.
