At our home we do Friday pizza nights. The pizza is usually "home-made" but with store-bought dough. I have always used Trader Joe's dough which is convenient and makes good pizzas. However as is right at this time, we are trying to not hit the stores for every small thing and trying to make alternatives at home as much as possible.
So I decided to try my hands at making pizza dough. Surprisingly it was extremely easy and so tasty, making me go "duh" why haven't we made it before. Home-made dough while being very easy to put together was so much more flavorful than store bought one. It elevated our pizza 10x notches! I don't think I'll be going back to the store bought one anytime soon, atleast not on days when I have time to let the dough rise.
I loosely followed this Food Network recipe but changed the proportions to suite the amount we need and also tweaked to the ratios that had worked for me with the flour I am using in the past. If you are new to dough baking, I recommend to follow the FN recipe as is.
Dough:
Add 2C AP flour, 2tsp sugar, 1tsp salt, 1 packet instant yeast, 1Tbsp oil and 1C warm water (110F temp) to mixer and mix and knead until the dough forms and is soft. Put the dough covered in an oiled bowl and let rise for 2 hours or until doubled in size. After 2 hours, punch the dough, make into 2 balls and let sit for 10 minutes while you prepare sauce and the toppings.
Tomato sauce:
Warm olive oil in a pan, add 2 chopped garlic cloves, 1 large tomato chopped, dash of balsamic vinegar and dried basil, salt & pepper and let cook for 5-10 minutes.
Toppings:
Slice onions, mushrooms, red pepper, olives, pineapple - whatever you would like to top your pizza with.
Assemble:
Roll the dough into a crust using flour and oil as needed. Top with tomato sauce, cheese and toppings.
Bake:
Bake for 20 minutes in a 450 pre-heated oven. Rotate half way so all sides cook evenly. Enjoy hot!