American Style Pizza Dough

Making pizza dough at home is worth the effort!

Basic American Pizza Crust

Makes two 12”-14” medium-thick crusts, or three smaller ones.

1 pkg. active dry yeast

1 tsp. brown sugar

¾ cup warm water

½ cup cold milk

1 tsp. salt

2 Tbs. olive oil

3½  to 4 cups bread flour (or all-purpose)

In a medium size bowl, stir to dissolve yeast and brown sugar in warm water; let stand for about five minutes.  Stir in cold milk, salt and olive oil.  One cup at a time, add 3 cups of flour, mixing each time until flour is thoroughly incorporated.   Turn dough out onto a lightly floured board and knead for 5 to 8 minutes, adding small amounts of flour to keep the dough manageable.  Lightly oil the surface of the dough and place in a medium size clean bowl and cover with plastic wrap.  Let rise in cool place for two hours before use, or in the refrigerator for several hours or overnight. 

Variations

Cornmeal Crust  Substitute a half cup of stone-ground cornmeal for a half cup of the all-purpose flour.  The resulting dough will be heartier and have a little more crunch to it.

Onion Crust  Add a quarter cup of fresh minced onions to the dough after the second cup of flour.  Try this crust with the Four Cheese Tomato Top Pizza (page XXX) or the Smoked Salmon Pizza (page XXX).

Notes

---American-style pizza dough uses oil, sugar and milk to enrich the crust, making it denser and promoting more browning.  It’s very similar to bread dough in texture and appearance.

---Bread flour has more protein in it than all-purpose, so the longer you knead this dough, the chewier the crust will be after baking.