fluffy.pizza.crust

It’s true. I finally did it. I managed to make an amazing pizza crust which was light, fluffy and delicious. My friend Ashley is the queen of all things homemade bread related, and even after a hands on demonstration I couldn’t replicate her pizza dough (I may have been drinking at the time, but whatever). I figured that I was fine with my hodgepodge mix of generic all purpose flour and random yeast. So wrong. After so many sad failed attempts, where my husband no longer pretended to say ‘good job’ I finally took the step and invested in the right ingredients: Bob’s Red Mill Bread Flour and Bob’s yeast (kept in the fridge). What a world of difference!!! We each made a pizza last night for Meatless Monday covered in veggies and fresh mozz cheese and I can’t wait for lunch so I can inhale my leftovers.

Dough:

3 c. all-purpose flour
1 tsp. honey
2 tsp. dry instant yeast
1 tsp. salt
1 1/2 c. water (approx.), divided
1 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil

• Combine your flour, yeast and salt with a dough hook in the mixer. Add olive oil and honey and slowly start to add your water (you may not need all of it). Combine until the dough is still just a little sticky. At this point you can take it out and knead if you want, or be lazy like me and let the dough hook knead it for 4 or 5 minutes.
• Set on your heating pad to rise for approximately an hour (double the size). In an oiled bowl of course – not directly on the heating pad – duh.
• Cut the dough in half and start to roll out your pizza shapes on a well floured surface
• Rise the dough on the pan on the heating pad for 10 or 15 minutes while you cut up your ingredients
• Load your pizza with the everything you want and pop into a 425* oven for 10-15 minutes.
• Your crust will rise and be flaky and amazing and you’ll be patting yourself on the back!