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My Pizza Recipe

Makes 4 indivual , thin-crust pizzas (10-12" each)

Ingredients:

1 cup warm water
3 teaspoons of instant active yeast (bread machine yeast that comes in glass jar)
1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 teaspoon of kosher salt or sea salt
3 cups of bread flour (very important to use bread flour, not all purpose or self-rising)

Mix the first four ingredients together in a large bowl until dissolved

Add 1 teaspoon kosher salt (or sea salt) and 1 cup bread flour to the water/yeast mixture and stir with a wooden spoone to incorporate.

Slowly mix the remaining 2 more cups of bread flower until incorporated. It will form a ball as it comes together. You may have to add a little more water (teaspoon at a time) depending on humidy and how dry or damp the flour is.

Kneed the dough for 10 minutes. You can do this by hand (which gets tiresome) or ...

Alternative: Mix the water, yeast, oil and sugar together in a measure cup until dissolved. Throw water/yeast mixture into a stand mixer (such as a Kitchenaid) and dump in one cup of flour at a time. Use a dough hook attachment. Once it's all blended together it will form a ball and pull away from the sides of the mixer bowl. Let the Kitchenaid mix for 10 minutes on speed 2 or 3.

Okay...

Place the well-kneeded dough ball in a large glass bowl that you have coated in olive oil. (pour a couple of tablespoons of the oil on a paper towl and wipe the inside of the bowl until coated).

Cover with a slightly damp towl or plastic wrap and let rise for 1 hour.

About 15 minutes prior to end of the dough rise, turn on your oven to 450 degrees on the Bake setting. On your lower rack, place a 12" unglazed Mexican tile (satilo) tile. You can get this for about a buck or two at a home improvement warehouse. Wash it before using. You can also use a pizza stone, but the Mexican tile works great and helps get the bottom of the pizza crisp.

After the dough has risen, pull it out of the bowl and place it on a floured surface. Punch down dough to remove the air and kneed for less than a minute.

Roll dough into large ball and cut in fourths.

Roll individual dough balls until round and set on floured surface and cover with slightly damp towel to let rise for another 15 minutes or so.

Okay. Two more steps until pizza making time. First, take a rolling pin and partially roll the dough balls out. You can also do this by hand. They will be about 6" in diameter and about 1/2 to 1" thick. Let them rest again (covered with a slightly damp towel) for another 5-10 minutes for the dough to relax. The gluten in the dough will relax and it will become very loose so you can now make and stretch the pizza dough or toss it into the air!

You're ready. You can now stretch the dough and make an individual 10-12" pizza. Dough should be thin in the middle (about 1/16" to 1/8" thick) and slightly thicker on the edges.

Take a pizza paddle and rub about a teaspoon of corn meal on it to coat. (Rub it all over the surface of the pizza paddle and then place the dough on the paddle. This way the dough won't stick, and will easily slide off the paddle).

Add sauce, thin-sliced buffallo mozarella or shredded mozzarella (if you must) and pepperoni. Or make whatever topics you want. For a good touch, drizzle some olive oil on top of everything.

Carefuly jiggle the pizza on the stone to make sure it's loose and slides freely.

Open oven and gently slide pizza onto now hot pizza stone, close door and bake for 7-10 minutes or until it appears done.

Remove, let cool for 5 minutes. Slice with pizza cutter and enjoy!

Note: You could also divide the dough in half and make two larger pizzas, or a deep dish. Baking time would vary.