Pizza Dough
- 7 cups strong white bread flour or Tipo "00" flour or 5 cups strong white bread flour or Tipo "00" flour, plus 2 cups finely ground semolina flour
- 1 level tablespoon fine sea salt
- 2 (1/4-ounce) packets active dried yeast
- 1 tablespoon raw sugar
- 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 1/2 cups lukewarm water
- This is a fantastic, reliable, everyday pizza dough, which can also be used to make bread.
- It's best made with Italian Tipo "00" flour, which is finer ground than normal flour, and it will give your dough an incredible super-smooth texture.
- Look for it in Italian markets and good supermarkets.
- If using white bread flour instead, make sure it's a strong one that's high in gluten, as this will transform into a lovely, elastic dough, which is what you want.
- Mix in some semolina flour for a bit of color and flavor if you like.
- Sift the flours and salt onto a clean work surface and make a well in the middle.
- In a large measuring cup, mix the yeast, sugar and olive oil into the water and leave for a few minutes, then pour into the well.
- Using a fork, bring the flour in gradually from the sides and swirl it into the liquid.
- Keep mixing, drawing larger amounts of flour in, and when it all starts to come together, work the rest of the flour in with your clean, flour-dusted hands.
- Knead until you have a smooth, springy dough.
- Place the ball of dough in a large flour-dusted bowl and flour the top of it.
- Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and place in a warm room for about 1 hour until the dough has doubled in size.
- Now remove the dough to a flour-dusted surface and knead it around a bit to push the air out with your hands - this is called punching down the dough.
- You can either use it immediately, or keep it, wrapped in plastic wrap, in the fridge (or freezer) until required.
- If using straightaway, divide the dough up into as many little balls as you want to make pizzas - this amount of dough is enough to make about six to eight medium pizzas.
- Timing-wise, it's a good idea to roll the pizzas out about 15 to 20 minutes before you want to cook them.
- Don't roll them out and leave them hanging around for a few hours, though - if you are working in advance like this it's better to leave your dough, covered with plastic wrap, in the refrigerator.
- However, if you want to get them rolled out so there's 1 less thing to do when your guests are round, simply roll the dough out into rough circles, about 1/4-inch thick, and place them on slightly larger pieces of olive-oil-rubbed and flour-dusted aluminum foil.
- You can then stack the pizzas, cover them with plastic wrap, and pop them into the refrigerator.
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strong white bread, salt, yeast, sugar, extravirgin olive oil, water
Taken from www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/jamie-oliver/pizza-dough-recipe.html (may not work)