Favorite Basic Pizza Dough

I admit that I’m usually too lazy to make crust from scratch, especially now that there are several really good, natural brands on the market. But it's really not that difficult, and fun to do once in a while. Here’s my Favorite Basic Pizza Dough recipe, which harks back to my very first book, Vegetariana.

Favorite Basic Pizza Dough

Makes enough crust for two 12- to 14-inch pizzas

Ingredients

• 2 envelopes active dry yeast
• ¼ cup safflower or olive oil
• 2 tbsp natural granulated sugar
• 2 ½ cups whole wheat flour
• 2 ½ cups unbleached white flour
• 1 tsp salt

Instructions

1. Combine the yeast with 2 cups of warm water. Let stand for 10 minutes to dissolve. Stir in the oil and sugar.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the flours and salt. Make a well in the center and stir in the yeast mixture. Work everything together. first with a wooden spoon and then your hands, to form a dough.
3. Turn it out onto a well-floured board and knead it for 8 minutes, adding flour until the dough loses stickiness. Place the dough in a floured bowl, cover it with a tea towel, and put it in a warm place. Let rise until doubled in bulk, 1 to 1 ½ hours.
4. Punch the dough down. divide it. and form into two rounds. Roll out each round on a well-floured board and stretch it to fit a 12- to 14-inch round pizza pan. Lightly oil the pans and sprinkle them with cornmeal.
5. Lay the rounds on the pans and make a lip of dough around the edge. Arrange topping of choice on the dough. Bake in a preheated 450°F oven for 15 minutes, until crust is golden.

More

• Explore VegKitchen’s Easy Pizza Recipes.

This post was originally published on 30 August 2009.