Ingredients

  • 500 Grams Plain white flour
  • 2 Teaspoons Dry yeast (heaped)
  • 1 Teaspoon Salt
  • 300 ml Warm water (Approx’)
  • 4 Teaspoons Olive oil (plus a little extra)

Method

Preheat your oven to 240 C or 450 F (yes, I know, it’s really hot!).

In a large mixing bowl, toss in your flour, yeast, and salt. Stir together and add olive oil and warm water. Don’t add every last drop of the water…add about 3/4 of it and then mix the dough. It will be very sticky and messy. Add a little extra flour and then the rest of the water and continue to mix it all up (either with a big wooden spoon or your hands) until its thoroughly mixed. Then, either using a mixer with a dough hook or your hands, knead the dough (if you’re using your hands, make sure your surface stays floured) for about 5 minutes. Place the dough ball into the oiled mixing bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Keep in a warm, dry area and let rise for 1 hour.

After the dough has doubled in size, remove it from the bowl and place it onto a floured surface. Cut the dough in half so that you have 2 balls of dough in equal sizes. On 2 baking sheets (greased), spread each ball of dough out into either a rectangular or circular shape. Don’t worry if they aren’t perfect geometrical figures…this style of pizza dough is rustic, so it’s not going to look like it came from Pizza Hut. But then again, nothing should look like it comes from Pizza Hut.

Once you have done this, bake the crusts for about 10 minutes with no toppings. If you want to put a little tomato sauce on the dough before you bake it, that’s ok. This will just allow the crust to cook before you add toppings. After the crust is cooked thoroughly but not burned, add your toppings and bake for another 10 minutes.