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Pizza Dough for the Family

A homemade pizza dough recipe that makes 4 medium size pizzas - plenty for a family! This dough is super simple and stretches nicely.
Servings 4 medium pizzas

Ingredients
  

  • 2 cups warm water
  • 1 Tb sugar
  • 1 Tb yeast
  • 1 Tb kosher salt
  • 2 Tb olive oil
  • 2 Tb pizza dough flavor (optional)
  • 5.5 - 6 cups all purpose flour (660-720 grams)*

Instructions
 

  • In a large bowl or your mixing bowl, add your water, sugar and yeast. Mix together to combine. Allow to sit 10-15 minutes to double check that the yeast is alive. You will know if the yeast is alive because the top will be foamy and have a few bubbles.
  • Add the salt, oil and optional pizza flavor. Mix together. Add 5 and 1/2 cups of flour.
  • With a dough hook or with your hands, knead the dough for 7-10 minutes. It should be smooth and not super sticky and not dry. If the dough is too sticky and is not smooth, add another 1/4 cup or more of flour and knead again.
  • Place the dough in a large bowl coated with olive oil (or remove your dough and spray with olive oil and place the dough right back in the first bowl!). Cover loosely with plastic wrap. Allow to rise for 1-2 hours. The dough will double inside.
  • If you don't need the dough immediately, cover airtight and store in the fridge up to 24 hours.
  • For baking now, preheat the oven to 450 degrees. I let my pizza stone heat up in the oven at this point. If using a stone, you will make your pizza on parchment paper. If you are using a cookie sheet, then grease the cookie sheet.
  • Divide the dough into 4 sections. You can roll or hand-stretch the dough into a circle. Add any ingredients you like! For the first layer, use olive oil or marinara sauce. Sprinkle some cheese like provel, mozzarella and/or Parmesan. My favorite combination is mozzarella, tomato, basil and pesto. Or you can do onion, sausage, pepperoni, onion/tomato/zucchini, olives, anchovies, etc.
  • Bake in the oven for 14-18 minutes. If you fold the dough into a pizza calzone, they will take a little longer to bake. Cool for 10 minutes, slice and enjoy!

Notes

*I used a scale and weighed the flour.  This helps get consistency especially when using large amounts of flour as in this recipe.
*During the humid months of summer, I use the smaller amount of flour 5.5 cups.  During winter, I may end up closer to 6 cups due to lower humidity.
*I experimented and tried this recipe with 1/2 whole wheat flour and 1/2 all purpose flour - it worked!
Recipe from King Arthur Flour