Homemade Puffy Pizza Dough

     Whenever you go to a pizza place and try a slice, the main factor you hear everyone talking about is the   crust! There are so many ways to make a crust it can make your brain spin... thin, thick, brushed with butter, plain, chewy, crispy, stuffed, and more! Luckily, you never have to be disappointed with a slice of pizza's crust ever again when you make it at home. The more often you make pizza the more you will learn about the dough and how to tweak the recipe perfectly to your liking! So, although I will share my favorite way to make my pizza crusts, you can tweak and change it however much you want to create your perfect pie!

    I like to start my dough by gently mixing together active dry yeast, sugar, olive oil, and water and letting it sit for 5-10 minutes. I hope to figure out a sourdough pizza dough recipe soon because I rarely keep active dry yeast in my house anymore unless I am making this specific recipe. So stay tuned for that! After my yeast has bloomed (honestly, someone needs to make a candle that captures the scent of blooming yeast/bread) I add in most of my flour and salt. I use one of my rubber spatulas to scrape the sides and fold them in until a ball has formed that I can knead. 

    If you have a stand mixer you can also just bloom your yeast in that and add the rest of your ingredients directly in. With a dough hook you can forgo the separate mixing and kneading steps and just use a dough hook and a low setting on the mixer until your dough is smooth. If you do not have a stand mixer you can dump the dough out onto a lightly floured surface as soon as you have mixed your dough enough in the bowl to be one large lump. I like to knead my dough with a little flour on my hands so that the dough doesn't stick to them quite as bad. 

    Whether you are using a stand mixer or kneading your dough manually you can add up to 1/2 cup over your original amount of flour to your dough while you are kneading. Just be very careful not to add too much. Once my dough is smooth and elastic (if it is tough there is too much flour or you have over kneaded and if it is super sticky/shaggy it needs more flour and more kneading) I drizzle olive oil all over the original bowl I mixed my dough in and place my ball in. You can use a clean bowl but I am all for the least amount of dishes as humanly possible.

    I cover it with a damp towel or plastic wrap and set it in a warm spot to rise for about an hour or until it has doubled in size. The reasoning for the covering is you need to trap the moisture as much as possible, if you don't, you will get a dry "crust" on top of your dough that you will either have to remove entirely or knead back into the dough. You can skip rising your dough if you want, but your finished pizza crust could end up just a little doughier.

    After an hour of rising I dump my dough directly onto a floured or cornmeal dusted surface. I prefer flour but a lot of people like that cornmeal crust thing that a lot of restaurants do. As I shape my crust, I try my hardest not to over work the dough. To shape it you can either use a rolling pin or use a method similar to the professional pizza spinners. Don't worry, I am not a professional and would never attempt tossing my dough, but the idea is similar. I like to take one side of the dough and lift and wiggle it and allow it to stretch, while being very careful not to let it stretch so far that it becomes too thin and rips. I then set it down, rotate it, and repeat. This can create a bit of a wonky shape but that is part of the fun of homemade pizza!

I made stuffed crust by folding the edges over string cheese.

    Before I start topping my crust I preheat my oven to 400 degrees Farenheit. If I  am using a pizza stone I like to preheat it with the oven but usually I use my normal pizza pan that does not need to be preheated. Once that is going, I top my pizza with my favorite homemade marinara, tons of cheese, and fresh deli cut pepperoni, but you can top with whatever you want! This recipe also makes an amazing white sauce pizza, stuffed crust, or even dessert pizza!

    When I am done topping my pizza, I bake it on a pizza stone for 12-15 minutes or on a metal pizza pan for 10-13 minutes. Although it takes all of my self control not to cut into my delicious creation immediately out of the oven, I do recommend you let it cool for about 5-10 minutes after you take it out of the oven to avoid 3rd degree mouth burns. 

    This recipe makes one wonderful large pizza crusts or 2-4 personal pizzas depending on how big you make them. This recipe is also very easily doubled, tripled, or even quadrupled! I like to make 2 at a time and freeze the extra crust before the rising step so that I always have an easy pizza in the freezer. If you freeze it at this step I recommend you put it in the fridge overnight to the day before you want to use it and then pull it out of the fridge to return to room temperature about 30 minutes to one hour before you shape it. You can also fully assemble your pizza and freeze it on a piece of cardboard for a homemade frozen pizza! If you do this, bake it just a few minutes longer or until your cheese is melted and your crust is golden brown. 

    Thank you so much for reading! How did this recipe work for you? Leave me a comment!