HomemadeTraditional Italian Pizza Dough

Nothing like the aroma of freshly baked homemade pizza, right from your oven.

Heavenly!

You can't consider yourself a true Italian cook until you've tried, at least once, making your own homemade pizza. If you haven't, here is your chance!
You will be surprised by how easy it actually is. I experimented several recipes until I found the one that gave me the perfect pizza: thin crust, with soft, bubbly, only slightly crunchy edges.
To make this pizza dough I use half bread flour and half all-purpose flour. I add the sugar and the yeast at the beginning, and add the salt only at the end. The sugar helps the yeast raise the dough, while the salt will limit its effect. So timing is fundamental to the success of this recipe!
You will need to let the dough sit for a few hours, until it almost doubles in size. So, in general, if I plan to make the pizza for dinner, I prepare the dough right after lunch!
Ready to give it a try?!? Here we go!

Ingredients for the dough: to make about two 12 inch pizzas, serving around 4

• 2 cups (300 gr) of unbleached bread flour
• 2 cups (300 gr) of all-purpose flour
• 1 packet (2 1/2 teaspoons) of active dry yeast 
• 1 teaspoon of sugar
• 1 tablespoon of salt
• about 14 fl oz (410 ml) of water

Preparation time: 15 minutes to prepare the dough, about 2 hours or more rest, and 20 minutes to bake the pizza

Directions:
Step 1: In a large bowl combine the two types of flour, yeast and sugar. Add the water, a cup at the time, in the middle of the flour and mix with a spoon. When you have about 4 fl oz of water left, dissolve the salt in the remaining water (mixing well with a spoon). Add the remaining water to the dough until all the flour comes together into a ball.

Step 2: Move the dough to the counter and start kneading with your hand, using your palm to push down and forward. You should keep doing this for a few minutes. If the dough is too hard, add a bit of water (one tablespoon at the time). If too sticky add a little bit of flour. After kneading for a few minutes you will see the dough becoming smoother and slightly softer. That's when you will know you can stop!

Step 3: Place the dough back in the same bowl, and cover with plastic wrap. Place a clean kitchen towel on top, and let it sit in a non drafty area for a few hours. I normally place mine into the oven... turned off, obviously :) This is how it should look after a few hours:

Step 4: Preheat the oven to 500 degrees. If you use a pizza stone place it inside the oven now, so it will be super hot when you place the pizza on top.
Divide the dough in half and shape it in two round (or rectangular) pizza using your hands.

Step 5: Top the dough only with some tomato sauce. Bake in the oven for about 8 minutes.

Step 6: Add the fresh mozzarella and other ingredients (mushrooms, olives, artichokes... whatever you like!) at this point! Do not add prosciutto, or other cut meat now. These ingredients will be add only when the pizza is fully cooked!  Bake for another 7-8 minutes.

Step 7: Add the last fresh ingredients, if any. Decorate with basil leaves if you like. Sprinkle with a tiny bit of olive oil.

Enjoy !!

This my pizza margherita:

and this one is has porchetta and mushrooms!