Pizza Dough and Bonus Focaccia Bread

photo by daggle





- Ready In:
- 1hr 20mins
- Ingredients:
- 6
- Yields:
-
2 12to15 inch pizza crusts
- Serves:
- 16
ingredients
- 1 1⁄2 cups water, at 110 degrees f
- 3⁄4 tablespoon fast rising yeast
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 4 cups bread flour or 4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
directions
- Add yeast and sugar to water, whisk and set aside until foamy.
- Add yeast mixture and oil to flour; mix and turn out onto lightly floured surface; knead 5 minutes (10 minutes if under stress or worried).
- Place in oiled bowl, loosely covered with plastic wrap or clean towel; allow to rise in warm place until doubled in size, 45-60 minutes.
- Divide dough in half and roll out 2-12"to 15" pizzas; or 1 large 9" focaccia (using all of the dough); or 1 pizza and 1 small 5" focaccia; or 2 small focaccia.
- Bake topped pizza at 500° for 10-12 minutes.
- Focaccia: After first rising, knead desired ingredients into dough; suggestions are herbs, cheese, olives, sun-dried tomatoes, artichokes, garlic, onions or pesto.
- Pat and stretch dough into small or large rounds; place on oiled cookie sheet, cover with towel and let rise in warm place again until doubled.
- Just before putting bread in oven make indentations in the surface with your fingertips; if desired brush with olive oil and sprinkle with coarse salt; other suggestions are sesame seeds, beaten egg, flavored oils, pepper, sesame oil, rosemary or basil.
- Bake on cookie sheet or pizza stone until golden brown at 475°, 10-25 minutes depending on size and ingredients.
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Reviews
-
My husband's aunt turned me on to Nick Stellino and every recipe I have tried is absolutely mouth watering. This dough turned out perfect; I even made an extra batch just to have some in the freezer. The only thing different I experimented with was, I substituted two cups of the flour for two cups of wheat flour. It turned out delicious.
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This is a very easy recipe & makes a lovely silky dough. I made 2 x thin pizzas about 30cm in diameter, and the results were very good. This is my second favourite pizza base recipe. I have another one but that takes two days as you have to retard the dough in the fridge overnight. This one is good for a same day pizza base.
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Tweaks
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My husband's aunt turned me on to Nick Stellino and every recipe I have tried is absolutely mouth watering. This dough turned out perfect; I even made an extra batch just to have some in the freezer. The only thing different I experimented with was, I substituted two cups of the flour for two cups of wheat flour. It turned out delicious.
RECIPE SUBMITTED BY
sugarpea
Snohomish, WA
I’m a former interior designer and landscape designer. At the moment I get to enjoy being at home and working only when I want to. I like rollerblading, hiking, backpacking and trips to the ocean. I grew up on a farm in the Midwest and moved to the Northwest when I was thirty, over twenty years ago. I’m afraid they’ll have to bury me here in WA. This is God’s country and I’m never leaving.
I have a smallish collection of cookbooks, preferring to use the library and a copy machine. Among my favorites though, are: Recipes 1-2-3, by Rozanne Gold, a collection of recipes containing no more than 3 ingredients (excepting water, salt and pepper); A Treasury of Great Recipes, by Mary and Vincent Price, recipes collected from friends and chefs of great restaurants around the world; The Mediterranean Diet Cookbook, by Nancy Harmon Jenkins, about a collection of cuisines I’m convinced are the healthiest in the world and The Low-Calorie Gourmet, by Pierre Franey.
Currently my passions are our dogs, the garden, cooking, the natural world and of course, Dh. I can now add Zaar to that list of passions (translate: addiction). We have three dogs, two rescued and one adopted. They are Sugarpea, a Golden Retriever, Chickpea, a Llasa Apso and Sweetpea, a Shih Tzu; small, medium and large. We’re quite a sight out on the trail. One of the things I am most fond of about living here is the ability to vegetable garden year ‘round.