Basic Pizza Dough

In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine yeast, water, and sugar, and let sit for 10 minutes. The liquid should be foamy and bubbly, indicating that the yeast is alive.

Add bread flour, olive oil, and salt, and stir using the dough hook or a wooden spoon, until roughly combined. Fit the bowl and the dough hook onto the stand mixer and knead on medium low speed for 10 minutes, until smooth. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let rise for about 30 minutes, until the dough has doubled in size.

Remove the dough to a lightly floured surface and divide into four even pieces. Shape each piece of dough into a ball.

The dough is now ready to be rolled out and baked, or ready to be frozen.

To freeze pizza dough, place the pizza dough balls into resealable plastic bags. Make sure that if you put multiple balls of dough in one bag, you use parchment paper or wax paper to keep them separated.

To thaw, place the pizza dough in the refrigerator the morning before you want to make dinner, then roll and bake as usual.

To bake, preheat oven to 500ºF. Roll thawed (or freshly made) dough and bake each pizza about 10–15 minutes.