Pizza Dough

Original Recipe from: Kim Ashbrook

Kim is an active follower of this blog. She is an awesome and adventurous cook, working mom of two active boys, and great friend. After she sent me a picture of her pizza, I just had to have the recipe for her dough. When asked, she sent the recipe right away. Kim uses a bread machine for the mixing and kneading steps, but you can do it the old-fashioned way if you don’t have a bread machine.

Soon after getting Kim’s recipe, The Art of My Life posted an interesting article on using bread machines. Never having owned a bread machine, I have found a new respect them after hearing how Kim and Annie use theirs. My thanks to these two fine ladies for sharing their tips and expanding our knowledge about a kitchen appliance that usually sits on a shelf…unused. Enjoy!

Ingredients

1 cup water (room temperature)
1 tablespoon Olive Oil
1 teaspoon Salt
1 tablespoon Sugar
3 cups Bread Flour
1.5 teaspoon Yeast

Directions

Put all wet ingredients in the bread machine first then, add the dry ingredients (except the yeast). Make a well in the dry ingredients for and add the Yeast into the well.

Selecting the “dough” setting (1.5 hours) on your bread machine. When the dough starts to mix, make sure it is not too wet or too dry, adding water or flour to make it smooth.

Note: This cycle does a mix and a rise, so I’m sure it can be done without a machine.

At the end of the “dough” cycle, put the dough on a floured surface. Punch the dough down and kneed on a bit of flour until it is smooth and elastic.

Split the dough in half and place in 2 oiled bowls. Cover with plastic wrap and then cover with a towel. Place bowls in a warm, draft-free area to rise. Let rise for at least an hour.

Prepare 2 rectangular 13x9 baking pans by heavily oiling the bottom and sides of the pans. This gives the deep-dish, pan fried taste. Stretch out the dough to fit the pans. Let dough rest for 30 minutes in the pans and preheat your oven to 495 degrees.

Decorate your pizzas with whatever toppings you would like. Bake approximately 9 minutes or until baked to your liking,