The Best Pizza Dough Ever

We recently bought a pizza stone so we can make pizza at home more frequently instead of ordering out. Admittedly, I've never made pizza dough at home until I bought the pizza stone, so I scoured the internet to find the best dough recipe. Over the last couple of weeks, I've definitely tried some awful pizza dough recipes and I was nervous that I wouldn't find "the one" that Dr. Sweetpea and I would love. Then I came across a recipe from Baking Illustrated, and this recipe changed our lives forever. It uses bread flour instead of all-purpose flour which results in a suuuper crispy crust when the pizza is baked. Dr. Sweetpea admitted that he prefers the pizza we make at home now since we finally have an awesome dough recipe.

The Very Best Pizza Dough

(Source: Baking Illustrated)

1/2 cup warm water (about 110 degrees)

1 envelope (about 2 1/4 teaspoons) instant yeast

1 1/4 cups water, at room temperature

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

4 cups (22 ounces) bread flour, plus more for dusting work surface and hands

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

Olive oil or nonstick cooking spray for oiling the bowl

Measure the warm water into a 2-cup liquid measuring cup. Sprinkle in the yeast and let stand until the yeast dissolves and swells, about 5 minutes. Add the room-temperature water and oil and stir to combine. Process the flour and salt in a large food processor, pulsing to combine. Continue pulsing while pouring the liquid ingredients (holding back a few tablespoons) through the feed tube. If the dough does not readily form into a ball, add the remaining liquid and continue to pulse until a ball forms. Process until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 30 seconds longer. The dough will be a bit tacky, so use a rubber spatula to turn it out onto a lightly floured work surface. Knead by hand for a few strokes to form a smooth, round ball. Put the dough into a deep oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise until doubled in size, 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Press the dough to deflate it.

Place a pizza stone on a rack in the lower third of the oven. Heat the oven to 500° (I heat the oven to 450) for at least 30 minutes. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. Use a chef's knife or dough scraper to divide the dough into two pieces. Form each piece of dough into a smooth, round ball and cover it with a damp cloth. Let the dough relax for at least 10 minutes but no more than 30 minutes. While preparing the dough, make your sauce and get your toppings ready. Working with one piece of dough at a time and keeping the other covered, shape the dough, then transfer it to a pizza peel that has been lightly dusted with semolina. Top your pizza as desired and slide the dough onto the heated stone. Bake until the crust edges brown and the cheese is golden brown in spots, 8 to 12 minutes. Remove the pizza from the oven, cut into wedges, and serve immediately. Repeat with the remaining piece of dough (or you can freeze the second ball of dough for another time).

***We topped our pizza with some pizza sauce, shredded mozzarella, and goat cheese. Then baked in the oven for 8 minutes before taking it out and adding some arugula and chopped prosciutto. We baked our pizza for an additional 2 minutes to let the arugula wilt a little bit. After the 2 minutes were up, we took our pizza out of the oven and topped it off with some red pepper flakes and shredded parmesan cheese.