Homemade pizza crust

This is what I do. It's a slightly adapted recipe that I got off the internet for a neopolitan crust with directions to cook it on the grill. If I can find the link I will share it. But, I've used the crust for oven cooked as well. It is a little time consuming though. I'll include the grilling part of the recipe if you want to go that route. Oh and the directions are for using a stand mixer.


Dough:
4 ½ cups of unbleached, high-gluten all purpose flour, chilled
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon instant-yeast
¼ cup olive oil
1 ¾ cups water, ice cold

1. Stir together the flour, salt and instant- yeast in the bowl of an electric mixer. Using the paddle attachment on low speed, mix in the oil and cold water until the flour is absorbed. Once the flour is absorbed, switch to a dough hook and mix on medium speed for 5 to 7 minutes. The dough should clear the sides of the bowl but stick to the bottom. If the dough is too wet and doesn’t come off the sides of the bowl, sprinkle in flour just until it clears the side. If the dough clears the bottom, dribble in a teaspoon or two of cold water. The finished dough should be springy, elastic and sticky and register 50 to 55 degrees.
2. Prepare a sheet pan by lining it with parchment paper. Lightly oil the parchment paper. Dust your work area with flour and cut the dough into 6 equal pieces. Sprinkle flour over each piece and gently roll it into a ball. Place the dough balls on the lined sheet pan and mist generously with spray oil. ( Pam Olive Oil Spray). Cover the dough balls with plastic wrap or place in a food grade plastic bag.
3. Place the pan in the refrigerator overnight or for up to three days. (To freeze, dip each dough ball into a bowl that has a few tablespoons of olive oil, rolling the dough ball around to coat. Put each dough ball in a separate zip-lock bag and store in the freezer for up to 3 months. Thaw in fridge the day before you plan to use the dough and continue from here.)
4. It is now time to make the pizzas!!!!! 2 hours before you plan on cooking the pizza, remove the dough balls from the refrigerator. Dust your work area with flour and press the dough into disks about ½ inch thick and 5 inches diameter. Sprinkle the dough with flour and spray with olive oil and roll dough out into desired thickness and shape. Place on an elevated cookie rack and cover loosely with plastic wrap. Let the dough rest for 2 hours.
5. Turn grill on high and pull down the cover. The goal is to get the grill as hot as you can. When you are ready, oil down a vegetable grill pan and place one to two crusts. Put on the grill, close the lid and cook for 3 to 4 minutes. Depending on your grill and heat, you are going to have to eyeball this.
6. Remove the grill pan with crusts and turn the crusts over, putting your sauce and toppings on the cooked side. Place the grill pan (with the pizzas, of course) back on the grill, cover and cook 5 minutes. Again, some eyeballing may occur. Just do the best you can. The crust should be crispy with a few burned spots underneath. That’s the beauty of this type of pizza crust (Napolitano style).
7. IMPORTANT TIPS: For your toppings to be perfectly cooked, some of them will have to be pre-cooked. This doesn’t apply to the cheese or veggies that you want to be fresh and crispy. Meats should be cooked before, i.e. bacon, sausage, pepperoni, chicken, ground beef or anything else. Grilled bell peppers, sautéed mushrooms and onions are good as well. Just remember, since the heat is coming from below pre-cooking some of your ingredients will help, it is strictly up to you.

From Cook's Illustrated:

75-minute Pizza Dough

Why this recipe works:

For our pizza dough recipe we found that using rapid-rise yeast proofed in warm water cuts the rising time down to a mere 40 minutes. We also found that the dough could simply be stretched to the desired thickness, whether you want a medium-thick pizza or a thin and crispy one. To get the crispiest, most evenly browned crust, we liked using quarry tiles over a pan, pizza screen, or pizza stone in our pizza dough recipe.

Ingredients
1 3/4 cups water -- warm (about 105 degrees)
1 envelope rapid-rise dry yeast
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour -- plus extra as needed
1 1/2 teaspoons table salt
Vegetable oil for bowl -- (or cooking spray)

1. Set oven to 200 degrees for 10 minutes, then turn oven off.

2. Meanwhile, in bowl of food processor fitted with either metal or plastic blade, add water and sprinkle in yeast and sugar. Pulse twice to dissolve yeast. Add all remaining ingredients and process until mixture forms cohesive mass. Dough should not be sticky (if it is, add 2 more tablespoons flour and pulse briefly) nor should it be dry and crumbly (if it is, add 1 more tablespoons water and pulse briefly). Let rest for 2 minutes. Process for another 30 seconds.

3. Remove dough from food processor and knead by hand on floured work surface for 1 minute or until dough is smooth and satiny (dough will feel a bit tough at this point).

4. Very lightly oil large bowl with vegetable oil or cooking spray. Place dough in bowl (do not coat dough with oil) and cover with plastic wrap. Place in warm oven. Let rise for 40 minutes or until doubled. Remove from bowl, punch down, and separate into two round pieces. Let rest for 10 minutes under damp dish towel, then shape according to illustrations below, and add toppings.

5. Proceed to cook topped pizza in preheated 500-degree oven using the following guide to determine cooking time for pizza crust with topping but without cheese. All pizzas need to be cooked an additional two or three minutes after adding cheese, or until cheese is completely melted.

THIN CRUST

1. 14-inch pizzas (makes 2) - 7 to 8 minutes

2. 12-inch pizzas (makes 4) - 5 minutes

3. 8-inch pizzas (makes 8) - 3 minutes.

MEDIUM-THICK CRUST

1. 12-inch pizzas (makes 2) - 9 to 10 minutes

2. 8-inch pizzas (makes 4) - 5 minutes

3. 6-inch pizzas (makes 8) - 4 minutes.

Tips
This dough can be used for any size pizza with thick or thin crust; simply adjust the cooking time to fit the pizza. Make sure you heat the oven to 500 degrees for thirty minutes before you start cooking. Your tiles or stone need at least that long to heat up; if they're not properly heated, your pizza crust will be thin, blond, and limp. Once the dough for the crust has been topped, use a quick jerking action to slide it off the peel and onto the hot tiles or stone; make sure that the pizza lands far enough back so that its front edge does not hang off. For a cornmeal-flavored dough, substitute three-quarters cup of cornmeal for three-quarters cup of the bread flour.

Source: cooksillustrated.com

Author Notes
Editor's Note: This recipe was updated in 1997, when we found that adding more water resulted in a tastier pizza. This recipe contains a total of 1 3/4 cups water, while the original that appeared in the magazine in 1995 contains 1 1/2 cups.