* Basic Pizza Dough

Sometimes you need a few basics in the background for when you want to make other recipes. 

Pizza dough is one of those, for me.

 It's much more versatile than you'd imagine, and - a bit like pastry - it comes in many forms. I know I have my own favourite way of making pastry (now that I know that I can) - I also have a favourite recipe for pizza dough. Something I have been making successfully for years. 

Possibly because I luuuuuurve pizza - I actually bothered to hunt down a recipe that worked for me. I have been as faithful to it, as I have been to mayonnaise and cheese (Okay, I have more than one food issue). It has never yet let me down. 

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Basic Pizza Dough Recipe

Makes enough for 4

Prep time - 10 minutes max, plus 30 (or more) rising time.

Ingredients

7g fast action dried yeast

1 tsp sugar

235ml hand-hot water

350g strong white flour

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp olive oil

Method

1. In a bowl, mix the flour with the salt, sugar and yeast and make a well in the centre. Into this pour the water and the olive oil. Using a wooden spoon (or your hands), mix to form a dough.

2. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead for 4 - 5 minutes or until smooth.

3. Return the dough to the bowl, cover with cling film and leave to rise for 30 minutes or until doubled in size (I stick mine in the airing cupboard, it's always a bit warm in there).

4. When it's doubled in size, remove from the bowl and knead it again (knock back) for two minutes.

Job Done.

OR

Using a KitchenAid with dough hook attachment (this is what I do now, because I have one... and this is also why there aren't a million pictures showing you how)... throw all of the ingredients in, turn onto a medium speed for maybe 3 minutes to combine and knead the dough. Then follow steps three and four.

Job Done.

NOTE: The original recipe used 250ml of water, which makes a very wet, sticky dough. If you're happy to handle wet dough, then use 250 ml water. If not, try it with 235ml. It makes no difference to the end result and is more manageable.