Homemade Pizza Dough

Happy Friday, everybody!  I don't know about you but this week flew by for me-- and we're headed back to the new place tonight to (hopefully) finish up our big painting project. In the meantime, I have one more post-Rhode Island post to share with you.

We decided to have dinner at home after Megan's graduation ceremony and the graduate requested we have homemade grilled pizzas. This was a perfect choice because everyone loves pizza and we each got exactly what we wanted. We customized our own personal pizzas with toppings from the huge spread that my mom had put out and then my dad grilled them up outside.

I was especially excited because I love my mom's pizza. Her crust recipe is really simple and delicious, but-- food blogger confession time-- I am terrible at making it! I don't know what it is, but everything that I try to make that involves yeast turns out to be a big fat disaster... So, when I get a chance to enjoy mom's pizza (made by mom) I take it!

I'm sharing the recipe for mom's homemade pizza dough with you today. It works equally well for baking in the oven or on the grill. Fun fact: it's also a base recipe for soft pretzels! You know that if I can't even master pizza crust, I won't be tackling pretzels soon...



Cheers to my [our] favorite graduate of 2014!



Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 tsp. active dry yeast
• 1 1/2 cups warm water
• 1 tsp. sugar
• 4 cups flour
• Olive oil, as needed

Dissolve the yeast completely in the warm water. Stir in sugar until combined.

Pour the flour into a large mixing bowl and create a well in the center. Pour the liquid into the center and stir to incorporate. After the ingredients begin to come together, use your hands (and coat them with a little olive oil to work with the sticky dough) to knead the dough into a smooth ball.

Place the dough on a lightly floured surface and allow it to rest for 10-15 minutes.

For oven baking: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Roll out the dough on a  lightly oiled baking sheet, top with sauce, cheese, and desired toppings. Bake for 12-15 minutes until crust is golden and cheese is bubbly.

For grilling: Preheat grill to medium high heat. Roll pizza out into desired shapes and sizes, lightly grease both sides with olive oil, and place on grill rack coated with cooking spray. Grill for 3 minutes or until grill marks appear. Turn dough over, top with desired toppings, and grill for another 3-5 minutes with the grill cover down until crust is golden and cheese is bubbly. Remove from grill and serve.