Quick and fluffy pizza dough
- 350 ml warm water
- 20 g active dry yeast
- 8 g sugar more (up to 24 g) if you want a sweet dough
- 60 ml olive oil
- 8 g coarse salt or 6 grams of fine salt
- 500 g bread flour or all-purpose flour
- 8 to 16 g vital wheat gluten if using all-purpose flour
- Pour the warm water in to a large mixing bowl
- Whisk sugar in to the warm water
- Scatter the yeast across the sugar & water mixture
- Bloom yeast for 5 to 10 minutes and you get that distinctive yeasty smell
- Whisk salt in to the water & sugar & yeast mixture
- Whisk oil in to the water & sugar & yeast & salt mixture
- Optionally whisk vital wheat gluten if you are using all-purpose flour in to the water & sugar & yeast & salt & oil mixture
- Finally add the flour to the mixture
- Stir with a large spoon or your fingers until sticky, shaggy dough forms and all of the flour is pulled in to the ball
- Wipe out the mixing bowl
- Oil up the mixing bowl with a very small amount of olive oil or cooking spray
- Place dough in oiled bowl
- Cover with plastic wrap
- Set aside in draft free environment for 1 hour
- Turn out dough on to lightly floured (2 to 3 tbsp) surface
- Throw a little flour (1 tbsp) on top of the dough
- Gently knead and fold 1 or 2 times before using. Don't need too hard so you don't break down the yeast bubbles too early.
- Divide the dough in to two (15" pizzas), three (12" pizzas) or four (9" pizzas) pieces, and get to work making pizza.
The dough is light and fluffy, especially if you fold it and then roll it.
This dough works for either rolling with a pin or working with hands but isn't super-stretchy.
Because this is a quick dough, the vital wheat gluten (I use Bob's Red Mill brand) combined with the all-purpose flour, or the use of bread flour, gives the dough a nice stretch which you won't get otherwise. You can skip the gluten, but the dough loses that essential stretchy texture you are expecting and becomes more like an under-developed bread.
This dough is closest to the Fresh & Easy pizza dough or the Trader Joe's pizza dough that we buy when feeling lazy.
If the dough is more than 2 days old a little flour (2 or 3 tbsp) and two folds of the dough wicks away the moisture.
The amount of kneading required is minimal. The dough is ready to use in as little as 20 minutes, but an hour rest is better.
If you want a sweet dough, like Papa John's serves, then add up to 2 tbsp of sugar. But frankly, by that point, you are making cake, not pizza.
I usually make this dough on-demand because it comes together so quickly.