We’ve tried pizza dough from stores and area restaurants and even from tubes you whack open. But my family continues to prefer my homemade dough which adds about twenty minutes onto your timing but it’s still pretty easy as long as you have a food processor.

I happily share with you my No-Fail, Homemade Pizza Dough recipe:

1. If you are going to grate cheese, do it first, before starting the dough. It’s totally fine to make dough in a processor bowl that has a hint of cheese left in it but it’s so NOT okay to grate cheese in a processor bowl that has a hint of raw dough! Yuck. OR, skip this step by buying shredded cheese. Your call.
2. Mix the pizza dough in the processor. Here’s the recipe which makes two large pizzas or six individual ones:

• 4 ½ tsp. active dry yeast
• 2 tsp. sugar
• 1 1/3 cup warm (not hot) water
• 3 1/3 cup flour – half white and half whole wheat
• 1 tsp. salt
• ½ tsp. garlic powder
• 4 tsp. olive oil

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Mix the yeast, sugar and warm water. Stir and let stand until foamy, about 10 minutes.

In the processor, use the metal blade and add the two flours, salt and garlic powder. Pulse a couple of times to blend.

Turn on the processor and, using the feed tube, slowly pour in the yeasty water mixture being sure to scrape out any remaining yeast clinging to the sides of the container. You’ll need every little bit.

Keep the processor running while the dough starts to mix and gather up. Drizzle in the olive oil and, at this point, it should form a nice ball that goes round and round the processor. This is the kneading process which is, well, needed! So let it do this for about one minute.

Take out the dough ball and divide it up into as many pizzas as you want to make. At this point, if you want to freeze the dough, put it into individual zipper bags, squeeze out excess air and squish the dough balls down a bit before putting them in the freezer.

Roll out the dough onto a floured (white flour only) cutting board or other flat surface.

Don’t worry about circular perfection. Irregularities make the pizza more charming. Call it a “country pizza” and everyone will be impressed.

Spray cookie sheets or pizza pans with non-stick spray (or use a pizza stone which we love!) and lay the pizza dough on the pans.

At this point, you can let the dough rounds rest a few minutes to rise more before adding sauce, cheese, pizza, herbs – whatever you want. This is the best time to clean out the fridge and add tidbits of everything.

Drizzle some olive oil around the crust and bake the pizza’s approximately 8-10 minutes, depending on the thickness of your dough and how loaded down you made it with toppings. Watch the edges to make sure they don’t burn.

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