Rose Whitcher's Pizza Dough

So, I love to make pizza dough. Rose provided me with her recipe, which is my favorite. She has given me permission to share, at the request of many... so that her legacy of pizza will live on :) I love to make giant batches and freeze them. Each of the batches below will make two crusts, either 2 cookies sheet sized pizzas, or 2 large round pizzas (like on the PChef Pizza Stone)

One crust will fit in a quart sized freezer ziploc. After the first rise, you punch the dough down, and put it in the labeled freezer bag, and put it in the freezer immediately so it doesn't rise again on you :)

Here are Rose's Directions:

Pizza Dough
Makes two cookie sheets, thick crust

Mix together
1 ½ C Warm water
1 Package of fast rising yeast
3 T Sugar
2 T Olive oil
Add Flour (Meagan uses White Bread Flour)

I use a kneading mixer or a whisk if you don’t have one. Start adding flour a couple of tablespoons at a time until you have to use your hands. Flour your hands and keep adding flour until it isn’t sticky anymore. It will turn into a nice ball of dough. Cover with clean towel and let rise. Punch it down and work out on your greased cookie sheets. Don’t use the fancy double ones; it won’t have a nice crust. My pans are older than you and look like they need to be tossed but they make the best pizza.

Meagan's Notes:
I make mine on pizza stones and have been INSANELY satisfied with the results every single time. Keep in mind that if you aren't a bread baker, you need to be careful at the temperature of your water. 100 degrees is ideal for proper rising. I let mine rise in the kitchen (keeping it warm in there!) and put the dough in a greased bowl (LARGE) and I put the dough ball in the bowl and turn it once so that the whole ball is greased and it doesn't dry out when rising. I cover it with a flour sack towel. If your kitchen is cool, you can place your oven on warm, and then once it heats up, TURN OFF THE OVEN and then put the bowl on the top rack, covered with your towel, and close the door to keep it slightly warm inside. Any questions let me know!