To make this easy pizza dough, use a large food processor for kneading. I use an 11-cup capacity food processor. This gadget will kneed the dough for you in about a minute. Talk about easy-peasy!
Thick Crust Pizza Dough
Inactive time: approximately 4 hours
Makes 2-12 inch pizzas
Ingredients
3 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1 cup water + 2 tablespoons water (add this if the dough does not come together)
3 tablespoons olive oil (3 tablespoons for dough + 1 teaspoon for resting dough)
1 packet of active dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
Preparation
In a small bowl or mug, mix the yeast, 1/4 cup of hot water (approx. 110 degrees), and sugar. Let rest for 10 minutes (mixture should become bubbly and have doubled in size).
In a food processor, pour in flour and salt and pulse a few times to combine. Add in the yeast mixture and 3 tablespoons of olive oil to the flour. Turn on the food processor and pour 3/4 cup of WARM water slowly through the feed tube. After this has combined, if the dough is still crumbly (and feels sandy to the touch), slowly add more water 1 tablespoon at a time. Most of the dough should come together to form a ball (grab any loose pieces of dough and add it to the big dough ball). Total process time is approximately 1 minute.
In a large glass bowl, add 1 teaspoon of olive oil to the bottom of the bowl. Swirl the dough around in the olive oil so that all of the dough is covered in oil. Place a warm damp kitchen towel over the bowl. Let sit for 2-3 hours.
After the dough has rested, flour a clean surface and cut the dough in half and roll each half into a ball. Put the kitchen towel back over the dough and let rest for an additional 1-2 hours. Total rest time is 4 hours (but feel free to let it rest for an hour longer if you don’t get back to it in time).
Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Roll out dough into oiled 12-inch round pizza pans. Bake with sauce and toppings for approximately 14 minutes. (Check the pizza at 12 minutes AND 14 minutes to see how it’s cooking. Depending on your oven it may need to cook shorter OR longer). Broil the top of pizza if necessary to get the vegan cheese to melt. Let cool for a few minutes before serving.
Enjoy!
Note: For pizza sauce, I’ve been making a copycat Pizza Hut sauce recipe. The only thing that I do differently, is that I sauté fresh garlic in a bit of olive oil before adding the rest of the ingredients. It’s a super easy recipe, and it makes the perfect amount of sauce for two pizzas (plus a little extra for dipping the crusts).
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