Here's my Pizza Process (long post); Dough (Part 1)

Big-R

Folks, after reading all the posts of horrible pizza experience, I will leave you all with my sure fire method for homemade pizza, either oven baked for Egg baked. Credit goes to an unknown "Parade Magazine" author for the original recipies which we have altered (cause I'm too lazy to measure anything).[p]Two hours before desired eating time begin making dough take about 15 minutes to prepare dough for rising..........
30 minutes before eating time, preheat oven (egg), stones to 500-600 degrees) (Editor's note: you MUST have pizza stones to make great home pizza. They must be HOT).[p]Dough: critical element of the whole experience.
1 to 2 cups HOT tap water (amount of water determines how many pies you can make. 1 cup yields about 3 medium pies, 2 cups is a whole lot of dough.
bunch of BREAD FLOUR (about 2 to 3 lbs). (we keep a bin of bread flour in the cupboard at all times)
1 packet of active dry yeast (same amount used regardless of how much water you decide to use)
3 T quality olive oil
Pinch salt[p]Put HOT TAP water into medium bowl. Dump in yeast. Go get oil from pantry. Dump in oil (I count three seconds while dumping, wife measures). Grab a pinch salt. Stir with FORK to mix up. Begin to add flour about a half cup at a time. Stir while adding flour. Continue adding flour til you can hardly stir the goopy mess. Dump it all out on clean counter. Now comes the fun part. Dive in with your hands and start kneading. Continue adding flour slowly until the dough is smooth, elastic and doesn't stick to your fingers or countertop. knead several minutes more. Experience will make the kneading experience easier as you learn how much flour to add. This is where I experiment with the dough.... Wet or dry dough yields what kind of pie? Wet and thick for "chewy, hand tossed" or dry and thin for "thin and crispy"? Your choice. [p]After kneading, let rest on counter while you clean the mixing bowl with HOT tap water (heats the bowl). Oil the bowl with olive oil (all parts). Drop in the dough ball. Turn once to oil the ball. Cover with kitchen towel and place in warm closed space to rise (one hour). I use the micowave oven with a pitcher of hot water for heat and moisture. I have used the oven but the micro is best.[p]After rising, punch down the dough in the bowl and turn the dough out onto the floured counter (dough will be moist and somewhat sticky). I then divide it into balls for pizza pies.... small for kids, large for Dad. Flour each ball and let rest on counter for 10 minutes covered with a towel. [p]You are now ready for the fun part, making the pie..... (see part three).[p]Randy

Tom

Big-R,
One question. Shouldnt you use room temperature water instead of hot? Ive allways thought if you use HOT water it will kill the yeast. I could be wrong.[p]Tom

Mike Oelrich

Tom,[p] It all depends on how hot your tap water is. The temperature range I see most often for the initial "disslove yeast in warm water" stage is 95º to 115º. Yeast will usually be OK up to about 120º and will almost always be completely killed above 140º. My experience has been that most houses have their hot water set at about 120º as this is what is recommended as the max for safe child bathing. Mine is a lot higher because my thermostat is broken (need to get that fixed soon)! Best bet is to use your Polder to check the temperature coming out of the spigot and go from there . . .[p]MikeO

Big-R

Mike is right about the variability of hot tap water. But, by the time you put the hot water (1 cup+) in a cool bowl, it's no longer that hot and the hot water jump starts the rising process... No knead to Polder the dough, though.... as the internal temp while rising isn't that critical ;-) [p]Randy

sdbelt

Big-R,[p]FWIW, I usually make my dough on the morning of the cook, in which case, my dough goes in the fridge (covered by towel, in bowl), once pounded down. I find that colder dough is much easier to work with when making a pizza.[p]Also, to your dough recipe, I add a tablespoon of honey, but it's otherwise the same. But then, I live on the West Coast where sugar is added to nearly every recipe ;-) Also, cornmeal can be substituted for 1/3 of flour content, for a simple change of pace to the typical white pizza crust.[p]--sdb