Basic Pizza Dough

DESCRIPTION

This is a basic dough recipe I use. It's pretty simple and fairly generic. As far as budget, the most expensive ingredient here is a decent olive oil. This is some cheap shit.

Again, it's dead simple to just throw these ingredients in a breadmaker to do all this work for you, but I've thrown together some manual instructions here.

INGREDIENTS

1 packet yeast
1 cup warm water
pinch of sugar

3 cups bread flour (or all-purpose)
a little olive oil
pinch of salt

DIRECTIONS

mix the yeast into the warm water; add a pinch of sugar. this feeds the yeast and helps it come alive. let it sit for a few minutes till it starts to form bubbles and rise up a little. this lets you know that it's working for you. sometimes i add a little of the flour to feed it some more.

next, in a big bowl, incorporate the yeast-water in with the flour. add a pinch of salt. (careful with the salt: the sugar feeds the yeast, but the salt murders it a little.) add a tablespoon of oil or butter if you like. (the fat gives the dough a slightly softer consistency when it's cooked.) mix till it forms a dough. get your hands in there. if it's too sticky, add a little more flour; too dry, add a little more water. you get the feel for it.

when it's nice and doughy, sprinkle some flour onto a sturdy work surface/cutting board and start kneading it. punch it down, fold it over, get out your aggressions. this kneading part is important for the dough to have a smooth, even consistency; otherwise, you end up with lumpy, clumpy bread. you'll get a feel for the dough when it's nice and smooth.

throw it back in a bowl. rub the top of the dough with some oil to prevent it from drying out as it rises. cover with a moist paper towel and let it rise somewhere dark and warm... let's say about half an hour.

now, the thing with this being a pizza dough is that it doesn't have to rise a hell of a lot, especially if we're making a thin-crust.

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