Tony's Pizza

I keep telling my friend Tony I'll give him my amazing pizza crust recipe.  It's truly the best one I've ever used.  Note, I use high-grade flour for this crust and it really makes a difference. Use the best you can get for optimal results!

Cost: Not much. This uses ingredients I always have in my pantry.

Yield: Two large pizza crusts

Crust Ingredients

• 2 1/4 tsp yeast
  
• 1 1/3C warm water (hot from the tap)
  
• 1 tsp sugar
  
• 3 1/2C high-grade flour
  
• pinch of salt
  
• 2 T olive oil
  

Method

• place yeast and sugar in large bowl with warm water. Let sit in a warm place until happy and frothy.
• Then add olive oil and salt to yeast mixture.
• Slowly add flour, stirring well until you can't stir any longer, then dump out on lightly floured counter-top and knead until smooth and elastic.
• Place in warm place until double.  If you've got time, punch down and let rise again. This is optional.
• Divide dough into two equal portions.

Pizza Assembly

• Pre-heat fan-forced oven to 220/400f (you may need to adjust for your oven)
• Shape crust to desired size/thickness.
• I sprinkle cornmeal on a pizza stone for baking and love the results.
• Top with desired toppings and bake 'til cheese is bubbly and crust is golden brown.

I'm currently addicted to pizza Margerita. Good quality tomato sauce (not paste - I make my own with tomato sauce, garlic, basil, sugar, salt and olive oil to taste), cubes of buffalo mozzarella and a handful of fresh basil. The pizza in the picture also has some olive tapenade I had lying around. 

Yum! Note: this dough gets lovely and elastic and probably would be thrown/twirled quite well. I'm just not brave enough to try so I role/shape the crusts by hand!