Joe's Easy Homemade Pizza Crust

Submitted by Joe Perry

Pizza Crust
2 ½ to 3 cups all-purpose flour or bread flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 package regular or quick active dry yeast (2 ¼ teaspoons)
3 tablespoons Olive Oil
1 cup very warm water (120 to 130 degrees)


Directions
Mix 1 cup of the flour, the sugar, salt, and yeast in a large bowl. Add 3 tablespoons olive oil and the warm water. Beat with electric mixer on medium speed 3 minutes, scraping bowl frequently. Stir in enough remaining flour until dough is soft and leaves sides of bowl. Place dough on a lightly floured surface. Knead to 5 to 8 minutes or until dough is smooth and springy. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest 30 minutes. Continue as directed below for thin crusts or thick crusts.
For thin crusts: Heat Oven to 425. Grease 2 cookie sheets or 12 inch pizza pan with olive oil. Divide dough in half. Pat each half into 12-inch circle on cookie sheets or do that impressive pizza dough toss thing that you see on TV. Doing the pizza toss can win you major coolness points if you do it correctly, and I am pretty sure there has to be a Youtube video tutorial of it somewhere. One thing to keep in mind is that if you are you doing the hand tossed dough trick you may be careful not to drop the dough on the floor. That would totally suck.

Anyways, partially bake (par-bake) the dough for 7-8 minutes or until crust just begins to brown. Add toppings and then continue to bake for another 6-8 minutes (or until your cheese looks awesome)

For thick crusts: Who the hell eats thick crust? If you were to make it with thick crust, and I don’t know why you would, but let’s say you went crazy and wanted to you could bake at 375 for about 20 minutes or until cheese is awesome.