THE BEST HOMEMADE PIZZA DOUGH

This is my family's favorite homemade pizza dough recipe and we use it pretty often. This is an easy recipe that you can make using your Instant Pot. We now like pizza more as we can add any topping of our choice right at home.

Recently I started doing more of baking while at home. And to my surprise, my son (a 4-year old) started helping me. And making pizza is our favorite thing to do. Earlier we used to make Bread Pizza. But recently I've been trying different techniques to make pizza base using different proportions, and I have finally mastered the dough that we like the most.

We are recently sticking to a healthy diet. I know Pizza is not healthy. But we thought if we are eating pizza then wouldn't it be better to make pizza a little healthier. So I'm using a 2:1 proportion of whole wheat to all-purpose flour for making the dough.

So if you're interested in baking pizza or in fact any other bread then do check out this list of Helpful Advice for Baking. The list includes all the information about ingredients, tools, and equipment that you may need for making the home-baked goods a success.

• FLOUR: You can add any flour for making homemade pizza dough. Or you can also add half wheat flour and half all-purpose flour. I have used 2:1 proportions, where I have used 2 cups of whole-wheat flour & 1 cup of all-purpose flour.
  
• YEAST: Add 1 teaspoon of Active Yeast in the warm water. Remember to add yeast in the warm water, then only it will work. If you add yeast in hot or cold water, yeast will not activate and hence will not help in raising the dough.
• WATER: Add Warm Water for making the dough. First, add yeast in the warm water, this will activate the yeast. Once the water is foamy & bubbly, add that in the dough.
• BUTTER/OIL: You can add 2-3 tablespoon of oil/butter while making the dough.
  
• SWEETNESS: Maple Syrup/Honey/Sugar can be added for a little sweetness in the roll. Also, when sugar is added, yeast works faster.

I have used Red Star Active Dry Yeast, but there are so many options available. First, choose any active dry yeast that will help to activate the yeast in 5-10 minutes. You can use Red Star Active Dry Yeast, or Fleischmann's Rapid Rise Instant Yeast, or Saf-Instant. These are all good options and I have used them in my recipes.

Piercing the dough using a fork or knife is not necessary, you can make pizza without poking the dough too. But if you poke the dough, the flavor of the sauce will go inside the crust and pizza will taste even better, you won't get the bland taste of the dough.

I usually make thin-crust pizza so I get around 3-4 pizza balls. But depending on what kind of pizza you want like thin-crust, regular, pan pizza, etc. you can obviously adjust the size.

Of course, you can add any flavor you like in the pizza dough. You can add Garlic or Italian Seasoning, or dried Rosemary, etc. All the flavors make dough even more flavorful. Just add the flavoring when making the dough, that way the seasoning will get mixed properly. My favorite is minced garlic, rosemary, and red chili flakes.

Yes, most certainly you can. I sometimes make the dough one day early and store the dough in the refrigerator, The refrigerated dough rolls pretty nicely and makes great pizza. Next day I make 4 pizza and eat 2 and store the other 2 in the freezer for later use.

You can also store the dough in the freezer and use when needed. But first, defrost it for a couple of hours till it comes to room temperature.

STEP 1- ACTIVATE THE YEAST: First and foremost is to add active dry yeast in warm water. Leave it for 5-10 minutes (or as per instructions) to activate the yeast until it turns bubbly & foamy.

STEP 2 - ADD DRY INGREDIENTS: Add dry ingredients in the food processor attached bowl. You can use any flour for making the dough.

STEP 3- MIX INGREDIENTS: Mix dry ingredients with the yeast mixture until properly combined and form like a dough shape. I have mixed all the ingredients at medium speed and for 6-8 minutes.

STEP 4 - RAISE THE DOUGH: Next put the dough in the Instant Pot or any warm place. This will help in raising the dough and dough will be double in size. To make my task easier I used Instant Pot for this purpose. My dough gets double in size in an hour.

STEP 5 - CUT THE DOUGH: Once the dough has doubled in size then transfer to a cutting board and cut it. You can make 3-4 balls from the dough.

STEP 6 - FLATTEN THE DOUGH: Flatten the dough like a pizza using a rolling pin or using your hands. Pierce the dough using fork or knife a couple of times.

STEP 7 - BAKE: Lastly bake homemade pizza base for 5-6 minutes at 425 degrees. Then and your favorite topping and bake for 10-15 minutes until the crust is golden in color.

• STUFFED BREAD PAKODA
• EGGLESS ZUCCHINI CUPCAKES
• BANANA BREAD
• FOCACCIA BREAD
• BREAD BOWL
• DINNER ROLLS
• NO-YEAST NAAN`