Karas Cakery Blog

On the menu tonight: homemade pizza with left over pizza dough. I’ve been meaning to post the pizza dough recipe too!

Pizza Dough Recipe – adapted from Greg’s Recipe

4 cups (+1/4 cup if needed) bread flour
1 envelope (2 1/4 tsp) instant or rapid-rise yeast
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 cups water, warm (I try to get it to body temp – too hot and it
kills yeast, too cool and it takes forever to rise)

Pour the yeast into the water and let it dissolve for 5-10 minutes.  Stir the salt into bread flour. Then add the yeast mixture and olive oil. You can either use a dough hook to knead, or mix ingredients until combined using a wooden spoon.

Turn out onto the lightly floured counter and knead by hand to form a smooth, round ball.  (You can let the dough hook do the work for you – until it is completely combined). Add extra 1/4 cup flour as needed to keep it from sticking to the counter.  Transfer to a lightly oiled bowl and cover with oiled plastic wrap.  Let rise in a warm place until doubled in size (1-1.5 hours)

My quick tip #1 – I preheat my oven so that it gets around 100 degrees, then cut it off and place my bowl of dough in and close the door. You have to be REALLY careful to make sure it doesn’t get too hot. This will kill the yeast. Once it has doubled in size, pull it out. This will happen rather quickly so keep an eye on it.

This recipe makes 3 12-inch pizzas.  Break the dough into 3 pieces and roll them into balls. You can freeze any portions you won’t use for later! However, you should keep the spare dough covered while you work with the other ones.

Pre-heat the oven to 450F. Roll out pizza dough and put on a piece of parchment paper on top of something flat and mobile (cutting board, baking sheet, etc.).  Put everything you want on your pizza dough and then brush the edge of the crust with olive oil.  Slide the parchment paper from your mobile surface onto your baking surface and bake for 8-15 minutes (if your pizzas are thicker, they may need more time).  Slide parchment paper off that and onto a different a cutting board , cut and serve. 

Enjoy!