I love love love this pizza crust recipe. It really is fail-proof (somehow). I came across this on Pinterest and have made both the dough and the garlic bread several times (the kids love them). Here's the link to the blog that it came from (helpful for step by step visuals): http://www.laurenslatest.com/fail-proof-pizza-dough-and-cheesy-garlic-bread-sticks-just-like-in-restaurants/
Ingredients:
Pizza dough...
- 1 cup warm water
- 2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
- 1 tablespoon honey (or sugar)
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 2 tablespoons olive or canola oil
- 3 cups bread flour (give or take 1/2 cup...depending on the heat & humidity)- I have used a mix of wheat and bread flour without any issue- if you use all wheat flour it tends to be a little on the dry side
- 1/2 recipe Fail-Proof Pizza Dough from above
- 2 tablespoons softened salted butter
- 2 cloves garlic, finely minced
- 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese (don't use the preservative-heavy cheese, it tastes so much better with the real stuff)
- 1/4 pound grated mozzarella cheese
- salt & pepper, if desired
For the pizza dough (*note, you can freeze this dough for future use)...
- In a large mixing bowl, preferably that of a stand mixer (don't forget to use the dough hook), stir yeast and honey into warm water. Sit for 5-10 minutes or until bubbles form and mixture starts to foam. This tells you that the yeast is alive and kicking.
- Pour in salt, oil and half the flour and mix.
- Once the flour is incorporated, start adding flour in bit by bit until you get the pizza dough to the consistency you want: slightly tacky, but when you touch it it doesn't stick to your hands.
- Once you reach this stage, knead for 6 minutes. Turn a timer on and walk away! Resist the temptation to stop earlier than 6 minutes! That seems to be the magical number. The dough should be smooth and easy to work with. And the bowl should be clean! (*This is the point when you could freeze your dough. Divide into portions, place into freezer bags, seal removing all air and freeze. To use, remove from freezer and let sit out to get to room temperature and double in size; 6-8 hours. Then use as you'd like)
- Lightly grease the bowl & the dough so it doesn't dry out, cover with plastic wrap and let it rise 1-2 hours. Use as desired.
- Preheat oven to 500 degrees with pizza stone inside (I used a regular pan and didn't preheat the pan and it was fine)
- Mix butter and garlic in a small bowl and set aside.
- Spread pizza dough out into a 12-inch circle on parchment paper (this makes it easier to transfer to the pizza stone)
- Spread the butter and garlic mixture over dough and top with Parmesan and mozzarella cheeses. Top with a light sprinkling of salt and pepper, if desired.
Notes:
- Everyone's oven temperature-time ratios vary. For me we baked both Garlic Bread and Pizza around 15 minutes (depending on our toppings)
- For toppings, I love to use olive oil instead of pizza sauce and add cooked chicken and broccoli. The kids love turkey pepperoni and peppers (obviously the more cheesy it is they devour, but watch out the dough isn't too gummy with all those toppings)
- For the Garlic Bread, we have used just mozzarella and still tastes amazing!
