Homemade Pizza Crust: Hand Tossed

Overachiever.  That's my motto this week apparently.

Friday's at our house are typically reserved for lazy-nights. We pop a frozen pizza in, watch Bill Mahr and relax to max.  This Friday was intended on being the same....until I got a wild hair to make my own pizza.  From scratch, no recipe. 

I've never made pizza dough before, so this was an experiment.  Luckily, one that turned out with raving reviews, my husband devouring 1/2 the entire pie and eating the rest as leftovers today for lunch.

I'm not counting this as one of my meals for the week, but nonetheless, the experiment turned out great.  Enjoy the crust with your favorite toppings.


Ingredients:


2 1/2 tsp. fast acting dry yeast
3/4 tsp. brown sugar

1 1/2 cups warm water
1 tsp salt

2 Tbs. olive oil
3 1/2 flour

Directions:

In a large bowl, mix yeast and brown sugar into water.  Stir gently until dissolved.  Let sit approx. 10 minutes.  Add olive oil and salt.  In a mixer with dough attachment (or by hand if you like) gradually work in the flour, 1/2 cup at a time.  Add flour and kneed until the dough is no longer sticky.  Oil a large bowl and place dough in it, with a clean dish cloth over it.  Let dough rise until double, approx. 1 hour.  Once dough has risen, punch down and work into a tight ball.  Let ball sit for about 5 minutes.  Press out onto pizza pan, or baking stone. Let dough sit for about 15 minutes before topping and baking.


Bake pizza at 400 Degrees until crust is golden brown.