Herbed Pizza Dough

1. In a large mixing bowl, dissolve the yeast in the warm water. Be sure it’s not too hot or you’ll kill the yeast. Swish it around in the water with a fork and wait for it to start foaming, about 5 to 10 minutes.

2. To the dissolved yeast, add salt, sugar, olive oil, the herbs, and 2 cups of flour. Mix by hand or with an electric or stand mixer until the flour is well incorporated.

3. Next, add the remaining flour 1/2 cup at a time, mixing well between each addition, until the dough is the right consistency. What’s the right consistency? I’m glad you asked! You want your dough to be moist and sticky, but not too sticky that you can’t work with it. And definitely not too dry that it’s flaky and the flour isn’t mixing well. If you find your dough in this dry state, add some more water a teaspoon at a time until it reaches the right consistency. If it’s too sticky, add more flour. I find about 3 cups of flour to be the perfect amount.

4. If you don’t have a stand mixer with a dough hook, lightly flour a good surface to knead your dough on and knead away! If you have a stand mixer, replace the paddle attachment with the dough hook and knead on low to medium-low speed for 5 to 10 minutes. The trick is knowing when it’s ready. Your dough should be smooth and elastic, and I suggest trying the window pane test to check: remove a small portion of the dough, thin it out, and stretch it slowly. If it’s ready, the stretched part of the dough should be very thin and translucent. If it just tears when you stretch, it’s not ready.

5. When the dough is ready, place back in the bowl. Pour a small amount of olive oil in the bowl and coat the dough. Place a piece of plastic wrap over the dough, cover with a damp towel, and let rise in a warm place for 1 hour or until it doubles in size.

6. Punch down the dough and place on a lightly floured surface. This amount of dough can either make 2 thin pizzas or 1 thick pizza, both medium-size. Divide the dough in half if you’re making 2. Using a rolling pin or a pastry roller, shape into the sized pizza you want. If you find that the dough is retreating whenever you roll out a section and not holding it’s shape or size, let the dough sit for a few minutes to simmer down, then resume.

7. Now, get out your pizza pan. Flour it, and place large piece of parchment paper on it. Then, place your shaped dough on top of the parchment paper. With the dough in place, build your pizza.

8. Bake at 475 for 6-10 minutes. It really depends on how thick your pizza is, so just keep an eye on it. Remove and consume.

*To up the delicious factor on your crust, right before you put it in the oven, use a pastry brush to brush olive oil around the entire edge of the pizza and then sprinkle with sea salt. *