Dough-licious

For me, the dough can make or break a pizza.

This pizza dough recipe is for a crispy, yet heart pizza dough that can be stretched out to make one HUGE pizza pie. I used a circular metal baking pan and cut my pie into 10 generously sized pieces. It could easily feed a fleet of hungry vegans and everyone else too, if you’re willing to share.

pizza pie

I topped my dough with a red sauce made by my friend. She added in diced onions and peppers, salt & pepper and spices to make a simply, but very tasty sauce.

As for toppings, I went with sun dried tomato slices, banana pepper rings, broccoli and chopped organic baby spinach this time around. Everything was topped off with a home made smoky cheese sauce that I threw together in less than 10 minutes using nutritional yeast flakes, Earth Balance spread, soy sauce, Dijon mustard, salt & pepper, a few dashes of liquid smoke, garlic salt and garlic powder and some smoked paprika. It was a nutty, cheddar-like smoky twist that tasted great on the pizza.

Back to the dough - A touch of salt and sugar with the garlic and Italian spices add flavor to the dough and the olive oil keeps it moist. I like the subtle hint of yellow cornmeal mixed with regular, everyday all purpose flour too.

Pizza Dough

(enough for one HUGE pizza)

Ingredients:

• one packet of Fleishmann's RapidRise yeast

• 1/2 heaping tsp. sea salt

• 1/4 heaping tsp. pure can sugar

• 2 cups all purpose flour

• 1/4 cup yellow cornmeal

• a sprinkle of garlic salt

• about 1 generous tsp. of Italian herbs and a few sprinkles of oregano

• 3/4 cup very hot water, about 110 to 120 degrees

• 1 generous tbsp. extra virgin olive oil

Preparation:

- Mix all of your dry ingredients including the yeast, yellow cornmeal, spices, salt, sugar and all purpose flour together in a large bowl.

- Add the hot water to the mixture and stir until slightly combined. Add in the olive oil and stir until your dough starts to form a ball in the bowl. Shape the dough to form a better ball and let your dough sit in the bowl for 10 minutes, covered with a clean dish towel or paper towel dampened with warm water.

- After the 10 minutes are up, knead the dough with your hands until it is flexible. Reshape into a ball and let it sit, covered, in the bowl until it doubles in size.

Make the pizza:

- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees

- Spray a metal baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray. Take your dough ball and spread it out to fit your baking sheet, gently working the dough from the middle out to the edges. A rolling pin can help get your dough to the right size and fit. Once rolled out, pinch the edges of the dough with your fingers and thumb for your crust and poke the dough with a fork to assure even cooking.

- Top the dough with sauce, toppings of your choice and cheese sauce or a non-dairy cheese alternative.

- Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until the crust edges and bottom are slightly browned and crispy.

-Enjoy!