Pizza with Homemade Crust

An all time favorite of my family. Pizza! Like most people, we used to order Pizza from outside but an year ago, me and my husband tasted homemade pizza at a friend’s place and we were so impressed that we had to try making it ourselves from scratch! 🍕

We tried it, and loved it! Trust me, once you start making the crust yourself, you would not want to buy from outside. It tastes so fresh and tasty! After a few tries we found out that the dough which is proved for ~24 hrs tastes the best and most authentic! However, 3-4 hrs works well as well! I used active dry yeast in this recipe.

This one was proved for 3 hours at room temp and about 15 hrs in the refrigerator! And then again 2 hrs at room temp before cooking! So if I want to make it for lunch, I start making the dough at 12 PM the previous day, then rest it at room temp for 3 hours and refrigerate it at 3 PM. Take it out at 9 AM the next morning and rest it at room temp for 3 hours. Before baking, knead the dough once, divide it into equal parts and rest it again for half hour.

We like a lot of veggie toppings on our pizza and of course lots of cheese.. 😀 you can add as many toppings of your choice as you like.

This recipe makes 2 medium size pizzas.

Ingredients:

Crust:

All purpose flour- 3 cups

Active dry yeast- 2.5 tsp

Sugar- 1.5 tsp

Salt- 1 tsp

Olive Oil- 2 tbsp

Warm water- 1.5 cup

Toppings:

Pizza Sauce: 1 cup

Mozzarella cheese- 3 cups (Grated)

Onion- 1 cup (Sliced)

Tomato- 1 cup (Diced)

Bell pepper- 1 cup (Sliced)

Sweet corn- 1/2 cup

Cottage cheese- 1/2 cup (cut in cubes)

Salt- 2 tsp

Oregano seasoning- 2 tsp

Red Chilli flakes- 2 tsp

Dough Method:

1. Add sugar and yeast in warm water and rest for 10 min until you see bubbles on the surface of water. If no bubbles are formed, then most probably the yeast has died and you need a fresh packet.

2. In a mixing bowl, add 2.5 cups all purpose flour and 1 tbsp olive oil and add the yeast mixture to it. Give it a stir and take all of it out on a chopping board or your kitchen counter.

3. Add a little all purpose flour if it is too sticky.

4. Now knead the dough for 12 min continuously. This will help develop gluten in the dough.

5. Your dough will become non sticky and soft. If you poke a finger, dough will bounce back.

6. Tuck from edges and make a ball of the dough.

7. Grease a large mixing bowl with oil and place the dough in it. Cover and rest at room temp for 3 hours.

8. After 3 hours, refrigerate for 8-9 hours and then take it out 3 hours before cooking. The dough should double in size and you will get an alcoholic smell from it. Don't worry that's yeast, working its magic.