Best Pizza Dough

I have never had luck with pizza dough. I’ve tried so many “surefire” recipes only to get a 4-inch high tasteless pizza or a brick hard flat salty one. I even have a KitchenAid Mixer
with the dough hook and still had troubles. Until recently I came across this recipe and decided to try it – for a white alfredo pizza, no less! It was sooo yummy – very light and airy AND family-approved! Even my 2 year old ate the crust, who normally just eats the cheese off pizza. That’s huge!

Best Pizza Dough EVER

Makes 2 pizzas

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 c. warm water
• 2 T. sugar
• 2 1/4 t. active dry yeast (one 1/4 oz. packet)
• 3 3/4 c. flour
• 1 T. Kosher salt
• 3 T. extra virgin olive oil

Instructions

1. Combine water, sugar and yeast in small bowl. Let sit 5 minutes. Mix flour and salt together in the bowl of a heavy duty mixer fitted with dough hook. Add oil to yeast mixture. Pour yeast mixture into flour mixture and knead on low speed for 10 minutes. (If mixing by hand, knead dough for same amount of time.) Place dough in a lightly oiled bowl, turning to coat. cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for 1 hour.
2. Punch dough down and divide in half. Shape into 2 balls. lightly brush dough balls with olive oil and cover completely with plastic wrap. Let rise another 45 minutes. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Lightly grease pizza pan or dust with cornmeal. Take each dough ball and using your fingers, pat it out from the center to the edge, leaving the outer edge a bit thick. Top with favorite toppings. Bake 10-15 minutes until edges are golden brown.

From: Favorite Family Recipes

I used the following Alfredo Pizza recipe on my new favorite pizza dough:

Ingredients

• ½ pint heavy cream
• ½ cup butter
• 2 tbsp cream cheese
• ¾ cup grated parmesan cheese
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1½ cups mozzarella cheese, shredded
• 6 oz of fresh spinach, roughly chopped
• 1 can of artichoke hearts, rinsed and squeezed dry, roughly chopped
• 1-2 tubes/recipes of your favorite pizza crust

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 425° if you’re using homemade dough. If you’re using the stuff that comes in a tube, follow the cooking instructions on the label.
2. In a medium saucepan over low heat, stir together the cream, butter, and cream cheese until fully melted.
3. Stir in the parmesan cheese and garlic powder. Continue to cook and stir for 15 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, place spinach in a saute pan with a tablespoon of water over medium high heat and saute until wilted.
5. Once spinach is fully wilted, place it onto a clean kitchen towel and wring out all of the liquid by twisting the towel into a ball with the spinach inside. Once you’ve squeezed out all of the liquid, add it to the sauce.
6. Spread the sauce over the pizza crust. You might have some left over for dipping depending on how saucy you like your pizza.
7. Place artichoke pieces over sauce then top with mozzarella cheese.
8. Bake for 15 minutes or until you start to see the cheese browning. Let sit 5 minutes before slicing.