Preamble

I’ll keep this short. I’m sick of shitty recipe websites with fifty-thousand ads and a story nobody cares about (ironic I’m writing this preamble). I’m posting this here partially to officialize the recipe and partially to remove the need to visit the abhorrently heavy and noisy website it originally came from.

This is a recipe I used (and modified successfully) recently and was surprised at how I was able to take a mediocre (sorry) recipe and turned it into something I’d say is better than something from a simple pizzaria.

Ingredients

• 3 cups of all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons of basil
• 2 tablespoons of garlic powder
• 3 1/4 teaspoons of instant yeast (about 1.5 packets)
• 2 1/4 teaspoons of sugar (unbleached is ok)
• 1 1/4 teaspoon of salt
• 8 tablespoons of olive oil + additional
• 1 1/4 cup of warm water (around 60°C/140°F)
• 200g of mozzarella cheese
• 3 small mushrooms
• 30g of pepperoni sliced thinly
• 213ml (one small can) of pizza sauce

Preparation

1. Combine around half of the flour (1.5 cups), the instant yeast, sugar, salt, basil, and garlic powder in a large bowl. Stir until mix is uniform
2. Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil and the warm water. Mix until the ball starts to solidify.
3. Lightly flour your hands and start adding the rest of the flour, working it in as you go along. Work the flour into the dough until a cohesive, elastic ball is formed. The dough will still be slightly sticky but should be manageable.
4. Coat the bottom and sides of an additional bowl with olive oil. This bowl should be conducive to being wrapped tightly with plastic wrap.
5. (Optional) drizzle a bit more olive oil over the top of the dough ball to coat
6. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and set aside in a warm place for 30 minutes, allowing the dough to rise or roughly double in size.
7. Once done, add the remaining two tablespoons of olive oil to the dough and begin working the oil into the dough until it becomes slightly sticky again
8. Lightly dust a counter surface with flour and roll out the dough into an approximately 17-inch circle. At the same time begin preheating the oven to 200°C/400°F.
9. Once rolled out, pull the dough over your pizza pan
10. Making your way around the dough, roll the outer edge of the pizza to form a crust, pinching slightly as you go along.
11. Apply 4 tablespoons of olive oil to the center of the dough, using a spoon to spread the oil around to the crust
12. Do the same with the pizza sauce
13. Spread the cheese, mushrooms, and pepperoni evenly around the pizza
14. Place in oven for 17-18 minutes or until crust turns golden
15. Once done, place the pizza on a cooling rack for 10 minutes
16. Slice and enjoy!

Credit: This recipe was adapted from its original which can be found here.