Homemade Pizza Crust

Ok people, it's time to get serious. About pizza.

Are you making your own pizza? You should be. When we were little, my dad would buy pre-baked Bobolli pizza crusts, and we would add the sauce, cheese, and toppings (more cheese for my sister, pepperoni for me. What can I say, we were adventurous eaters). And we loved it. But, it was just barely homemade. The crust was already baked. The sauce was from a jar. But putting it together ourselves made it 100% delicious.

But now, it's time to do it up right. With homemade pizza crust. This dough is so easy to make, I'm not taking any excuses from you. Afraid of using yeast? Don't be. All you have to do is buy it and measure it. That's it! No need to dissolve it in water that's the perfect temperature or look for bubbling, or anything. Even better, this is a Jim Lahey recipe which means there's no kneading required. Seriously, what are you waiting for? It's so quick to pull together, you can do it during the first two commercial breaks of The Rachel Zoe Project. I did.

Pizza Crust
Yield: Dough for 2 large or 4 small thin crust pizzas

Ingredients:
3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
3/4 tsp granulated sugar
3/4 tsp kosher salt
1 1/3 cups room temperature water

Directions:
1. Mix together flour, yeast, salt, and sugar in a large bowl.
2. Add water and mix either with the paddle of an electric mixer or by hand. If using a mixer, finish by hand so you don't overmix. Mix until the dough comes together into a loose ball and few dry bits are left in the bottom of the bowl, about 1 minute. The dough will be stiff and a little dry, not wet and sticky.
3. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature until the dough has more than doubled in size, about two hours.
4. Divide the dough in half (for two pizzas that will serve 4-5) or into four equal pieces (for smaller pizzas that will serve just 2) and shape into flattened discs. Either wrap and freeze the discs or prepare to bake. (To defrost from frozen, let thaw in the fridge overnight.)
5. Preheat oven to 500 Fahrenheit. Roll/stretch out one disc of dough and place on a greased sheet pan (For the larger pizza, it should fill almost the whole sheet pan). Top with whatever your heart desires! Brush any exposed crust with olive oil and Italian seasonings. Bake at 500 for 15-20 minutes.

We topped ours with mozzarella, feta, pepperoni, green bell pepper, garlic, red onion, caramelized onions, and artichoke hearts and it was A-MAZING. My favorite part: the feta. Seriously, try it. You won't be sorry.

Recipe courtesy of DALS