Just for my Homie Bryant

Hey Bryant, I don't blog really all that much, in fact this is only my second post ever! But I decided I'd do it just for you. Sorry it's taken me so long to share this with you but here is my incredibly simple pizza dough recipe.

Mike's Pizza Crust

1 c. Water (Warm/Hot)
1 tbs. Sugar
1 tbs. Yeast
1 tsp. Salt
1 tbs. Oil
2-4 c. Flour

Bake at 450 degrees for ~10mins.

Mix the water sugar and yeast together and let sit for about 10 mins to allow the yeast to germinate a bit. Then add the salt and oil. At this stage you can also experiment with your dough, such as sometimes I like to sprinkle in some oregano or if you're going to a Mexi-pizza then you could add in some Cayenne pepper. Mix a little. Then 1/2 cup at a time add the flour mixing the ingredients. This is where a Kitchenaid is fabulous to have or after it becomes more of a dough from a paste you may start to knead it on a floured counter top. The final dough should still be moist but should not really stick really to the bowl or your fingers. The dryer the dough the less it will rise. Once you have your dough, place it in a bowl, cover with plastic, and let rise in a warm place for 30-45 min or until about double its size.

As the dough is finishing it's rising you'll want to start preheating your pizza stone. After the dough has risen roll the dough out on a floured surface to the size of your pizza stone. The transition of the pizza to the stone and into the oven needs to be quick. If you have a pizza peel then you may assemble you pizza before you take the stone out of the oven otherwise just roll the dough out and have all your toppings ready so you can quickly transfer the dough to the stone and assemble. I've found that sprinkling corn meal on the stone helps form a nice crust but is not necessary. Also I think that it helps to prevent the pizza sticking to the stone when it comes out of the oven.

Variations
This recipe is very basic and allows you to be very flexible with your creations. Here are a few variations you can do with the recipe.

Bread Sticks
Make the dough like normal but when you put the dough on the stone make slits in the dough and brush with butter, garlic, and cheese then bake.

Chicken and White Sauce
Bake the dough plain with nothing on it. Pull it out 3 min early then sprinkle baked chicken pieces and a jar of Alfredo sauce and cheese then put back in the oven long enough to melt the cheese.

Calzone
Fold it in half, make a couple of slits on the top et viola!

Mexi-Pizza
Make some taco meat instead of pepperoni. Replace the tomato sauce with salsa.