Perfect Pizza Crust {Foodie Friday}

DH has been very determined that homemade pizza just does not cut it. We tried making crust a couple times from a box and it never turned out well. So now we just buy frozen or order out. So when I told him I wanted to make a pizza from scratch he told me not to.
Luckily for him, I make a habit of not listening to him ;) It turned out to be a good thing this time, because this pizza was quite spectacular. Even he agreed. I think his exact words were, "I will never doubt your mom's pizza making abilities again."  He was talking to Caroline of course. She ate all her pizza too, and she never eats anything, so that's saying something.

If you need a tutorial on how to make this Pizza crust, view this tutorial from Annie's Eats here.

I also made my own pizza sauce—make and freeze your dough now, and check back next week for the sauce recipe!

Basic Pizza Dough

Yield: enough dough for 2 medium pizzas or 4 calzones

Ingredients:
½ cup warm water
2¼ tsp. instant yeast
4 cups (22 oz.) bread flour, plus more for dusting
1½ tsp. salt
1¼ cup water, at room temperature
2 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil

Directions:
Measure the warm water into a 2-cup liquid measuring cup.  Sprinkle the yeast over the top.  In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the bread flour and salt, mixing briefly to blend.  Measure the room temperature water into the measuring cup with the yeast-water mixture.  With the mixer on low speed, pour in the yeast-water mixture as well as the olive oil.  Mix until a cohesive dough is formed.  Switch to the dough hook.  Knead on low speed until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes.  Transfer to a lightly oiled bowl, turning once to coat.  Cover with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled in size, 1½-2 hours.

Press down the dough to deflate it.  Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface.  Divide the dough into two equal pieces.  Form each piece of dough into a smooth, round ball.  (If freezing the dough, wrap in plastic wrap and freeze at this point.)  Cover with a damp cloth.  Let the dough relax for at least 10 minutes but no longer than 30 minutes.

To bake, preheat the oven and pizza stone to 500˚ F for at least 30 minutes.  Transfer the dough to your shaping surface, lightly sprinkled with cornmeal.  Shape the dough with lightly floured hands.  Brush the outer edge lightly with olive oil.  Top as desired.  Bake until the crust is golden brown, and cheese is bubbling, 8-12 minutes.

Source: Annie's Eats