Basic Pizza Dough

I don't know why but I haven't made pizza dough in a long time.  I came across Martha Stewart's recipe for a basic pizza dough (original recipe link here) and it was super easy.  This recipe makes enough for 2 large pizzas so I froze half the dough for a future pizza night.  Overall this Basic Pizza Dough recipe is great and you can make it without a stand mixer too.  Just stir everything together and let it rise, how easy right?  Enjoy!
 

Basic Pizza Dough

Printable Recipe

Ingredients

5 teaspoons active dry yeast

1 ½ cup warm water

2 tablespoons sugar

¼ cup olive oil

2 teaspoons salt

4 cups flour (all-purpose)

Directions

Pour warm water into a large bowl or stand mixer.  Sprinkle yeast over water and let stand for about 5 minutes, until foamy.

Stir sugar, oil, and salt into yeast mixture.

If using a stand mixer, use dough hook.  Slowly add in flour and stir until a sticky dough forms.

Transfer dough to an oiled bowl and rotate dough so all sides are lightly covered with oil.

Cover bowl with plastic wrap and set aside until dough has doubled, about 1 hour.  You may also store dough overnight in the refrigerator.

Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and gently knead a few times before using.

Makes 2 large pizzas.

Notes:

To freeze, you can wrap the dough in plastic and freeze it in a resealable freezer bag for up to 3 months.   

To bake, preheat oven to 500 degrees.  Place each dough ball on a baking sheet or pizza stone; using your hands, gently flatten, and pull into 8-by-10-inch ovals. Top as desired.  Bake until crust is golden brown and toppings are hot, rotating sheets halfway through, 10 to 12 minutes.

Pizza Dough 2

I haven't made pizza in awhile and I wanted to tweak the pizza dough recipe I typically use.  This dough came out well and was great for making a thinner crust too.  I was able to roll out half the dough to make a pizza the size of my large baking sheet.  I froze the other half of the pizza dough to use another time.  You can freeze any leftover dough in a freezer safe plastic bag.  Just defrost in the fridge the night before and the pizza dough will be ready by the time its dinner time.  I made a veggie pizza with this dough, and I will share that recipe tomorrow.

 

Pizza Dough 2

Printable Recipe

Ingredients

2 ¼ teaspoons yeast

1 cup warm water (105 to 115 degrees F.)

½ teaspoon sugar

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon salt

Directions

In a small bowl, mix together the warm water and yeast.  Set aside for about 10 minutes, it will get foamy.  Stir in sugar, olive oil and salt.

In a stand mixer with dough attachment, add in flour and yeast mixture.  Mix on low to medium speed until a ball of dough forms, about 5 minutes.

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Grease a large bowl with olive oil and place the dough in it. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature until doubled in size, 1 to 2 hours.

Punch down the dough with your hand.   

Turn the dough out onto a surface dusted with flour.   Halve dough and roll out with a floured rolling pin.

Makes 2 pizzas.

Spinach and Turkey Pizza

This spinach and turkey pizza was amazing!  I made sure to roll out the pizza dough as thin as possible and it turned out nice and crisp.  You could make your own pizza dough (homemade pizza dough recipe link here)  or use store bought.  It is actually not too hard to make your own pizza dough, and I like to double the recipe so I can always have one batch in the freezer.  If you freeze the dough, just let it defrost in the fridge the night before you need it.  Anyway, this spinach and turkey pizza was great because of the fresh spinach.  If you want to make it vegetarian, just omit the ground turkey.  What is so great about making pizza is you can use whatever toppings you have at home, that's exactly how I came up with this recipe.  Enjoy!

Spinach and Turkey Pizza

Printable Recipe

Ingredients

1 batch of pizza dough (recipe here)

10 ounces fresh spinach

4 ounces ground turkey

½ onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 ounces cream cheese

½ cup shredded mozzarella cheese

¼ cup parmesan cheese

1 roma tomato, sliced

2 to 3 tablespoons olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

non-stick cooking spray

 

Directions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Drizzle a little olive oil onto a baking sheet.

For the spinach

In a large pan, over medium-low heat, add about a tablespoon of olive oil and garlic.  Saute garlic for about a minute.  Stir in spinach.

Cover and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, until spinach is wilted.  Stir in cream cheese, salt, and pepper.  Cook for another minute and let spinach mixture cool.

For the turkey

In a skillet, over medium heat, spray with non-stick cooking spray, and add onion and ground turkey.  Season with salt and pepper.  Cook for about 5 minutes or until turkey is cooked through and no longer pink.

For the pizza

Roll out pizza dough on a floured surface with a rolling pin.  Place rolled out dough onto a lightly oiled baking sheet.

Drizzle a little olive oil onto the pizza dough.

Spread the spinach mixture over the dough. 

 

Top with turkey mixture.

 

Top with shredded mozzarella cheese. 

 

Top with tomato slices. 

 

Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

 

Bake for 15 to 17 minutes, or until crust is crisp and lightly browned.

Homemade Pizza Pockets

You know the Hot (and Lean) Pockets you can buy at the grocery store in the freezer section?  I admit I will occasionally buy Lean Pockets when they go on sale since they are easy to bring to work for lunch.   But after discovering how easy it is to make homemade pizza dough,  you can use the same pizza dough to make homemade pizza pockets!  I adapted the recipe from Money Saving Mom's freezer meals postings.  I love how versatile you can make your filling too, because I used what I had already.  These homemade pizza pockets were so delicious; the filling was hot and the crust was crisp.  Since I had doubled the pizza dough, I made pizza with half and pizza pockets with the other half.  Any leftover pizza pockets can be frozen too, how awesome is that?!  

 

Ingredients

For the pizza dough:

1 tablespoon active dry yeast (I use Red Star yeast from Costco.)

1 cup warm water (105 to 115 degrees F.)

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons oil (olive or vegetable)

2 ½ cups flour

For the filling:

1 pound ground turkey

½ onion, diced

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon chili powder

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon ground black pepper

1 cup tomato sauce

mozzarella cheese (shredded or sliced)

 

For the pizza dough:

In a large bowl, add yeast and warm water.  Use a whisk to dissolve the yeast in the water.  Next add in the remaining ingredients and mix with a wooden spoon.  Knead dough on a floured surface for about 5 minutes.

 

For the filling:

In a large pan, brown ground turkey with diced onion.  Add in spices.  Add tomato sauce and stir to mix together.  (Feel free to add other filling ingredients of your choice, such as pepperoni, diced peppers, mushrooms, etc…)

 

For the pizza pockets:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

Divide dough into 10 to 15 pieces.  Roll dough pieces into balls.  Next, flatten dough balls with a rolling pin.  Spoon about 2 tablespoons of filling onto one side of the dough circle.  Sprinkle with shredded cheese or half a slice of cheese.  Fold dough over and seal tighly with fingers or a fork. 

 

Bake on a greased baking sheet for about 15 minutes until lightly browned.  You can also lightly sprinkle some cornmeal to add some texture to your pizza pockets.

Place pizza pockets from oven to a cooling rack.   If you have leftovers, you can freeze them!

After they cool completely, store in a freezer bag for up to 2-3 months.  To reheat frozen pizza pockets, microwave for about 2 minutes or warm in the oven for about 20 minutes at 350 degrees F.  Check to make sure they are heated through before serving.  Enjoy!