Perfect Pizza, or Calzones,
or Bread Sticks or Focaccia
By Doni Greenberg

I was so certain I’d already shared this pizza dough recipe with you that I did a double-check archive search here on Food for Thought

Oh my gosh. I haven’t.

How could this be? This is one of my favorite of all my adapted recipes, one I’ve made since my kids were little. It was the stand-by for their birthday parties and their slumber parties.

It’s a great recipe for beginning bread makers, because it’s so forgiving, and with just one rising, it’s fairly quick. (It rises more in the oven.)

This recipe came to my attention again Sunday after my most recent cooking class, Yeastophobia, especially designed for those (like Grammalyn, not to name names) who never quite bonded with the whole yeast process.

I’ll teach a variation of that class again, but maybe next time I’ll change its name to Bread Boot Camp, since “Yeastophobia” sounded too much like something we’d need a gynecologist’s help to cure. Bread Boot Camp also better describes the course’s hands-on working atmosphere.

Indulge me while I post this adorable photo of our youngest and most enthusiastic bread-making student, 13-year-old Rudi Yniguez of Redding.

But back to this pizza dough. It’s so diverse that it need not be limited to just pizza. It’s great for calzones, breadsticks and foccacia. Just make it into the shape you want and watch the magic.

This recipe makes one large 14-inch pizza. It’s so easy you might want to double it so you can freeze some for later.

Or invite your best friends over for a slumber party.

Printer-friendly recipe

Pizza Dough

In your biggest bowl, mix the yeast, milk and olive oil until the yeast is dissolved.

Stir in half the flour and all the salt until well blended. Slowly add just enough remaining flour to make a sticky dough. Mix until everything is well incorporated.

Dump the mixture onto a heavily floured board. (In the meantime, fill your bowl with hot water in the sink to soak.)

Use the flour to keep the dough from sticking, pulling the dough up and over onto itself. When dough is not too sticky to handle, knead it until it’s smooth and satiny.

In your rinsed, dry bowl. Dribble some olive oil in it and smear it around.

Put the dough in the bowl, then flop the dough over (so both sides now have a coat of olive oil).

Cover it with a clean towel and let the dough rise in a warm, draft-free place for about 1 hour, or until the dough has doubled in size. Punch dough down. Dough will only be allowed to rise once. (Note: If you want to freeze the dough for a month or so, or put it in the refrigerator to use within 24 hours, this is the time to do it.)

Form the dough into rounds or calzones any way you can: roll it, toss it, pull it, etc.

Place on a cornmeal-covered baking sheet. Place toppings, leaving a half-inch margin around the edge.

Place in the center rack (unless you have a pizza stone, in which case use the bottom rack) of a preheated 400-degree oven for about 20 – 30 minutes, or until the sides are golden brown and the bottom seems set and dry.

Copyright Doni Greenberg 2008