Good morning! And what a beautiful morning it is today! For supper yesterday I decided to make pizza, not just any pizza though. This pizza dough recipe is quite known by my childhood friends, and my family of course. Growing up, every birthday party and any other get together I had with friends, they would always ask “is your dad making pizza?“ And so of course I would ask my dad to make pizza. It’s so fluffy, and delicious, and now that I am making it I can say it’s easy.
Now to say that I’ve made it 100 times and have it down pat would be a lie, I have only made it twice by myself. But, both times it turned out absolutely beautiful. I want to say it’s because it’s so easy to put together, but who’s to say it’s not from me watching him make it since I was little. I didn’t help much, I was really good at eating the toppings as he chopped them up… and he would sometimes get frustrated by that. Having my own children now, I understand why!
One thing I will mention, is that I make my dough using my stand mixer with the dough hook, but my dad never had one of those until just this past Christmas. So, he always made his kneading it by hand. How fortunate are we that our baking is made so easy for us now!
I did rewrite his instructions, because they were a little on the vague side, and I wanted to make it easy to follow.
So if you’re wanting to make light, fluffy, delicious pizza, you’ve stumbled upon the right place. If you make it, send a photo or tag me on Instagram @bairdsbaking, I would love to see!
Thick Crust Pizza Dough
- Prep Time: 40 minutes
- Bake Time: 15 minutes
- Yields: 2 12” pizzas
Ingredients
- 4 cups flour
- 2 1/4 teaspoons yeast (activated)
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/4 cups + 1 teaspoon boiled water
- 1 Tablespoon shortening/lard
- 1 Tablespoon honey
- 1/2 Tablespoon sugar
Directions
- Preheat oven to 450F, grease two 12” round pans, set aside.
- Activate yeast according to package instructions.
- In a small bowl, combine yeast and 1 cup of the flour.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer with the dough hook attachment, combine your water, shortening, honey, sugar, and salt on medium speed.
- Add 1 cup of flour, and then the yeast mixture.
- Add remaining flour, 1/2 of a cup at a time.
- Continue on medium speed, until dough leaves sides of bowl and is smooth and springy.
- Cover bowl with towel, or saran wrap, and let rise for about 20 minutes in a warm space, or until it is doubled in size.
- Punch dough down and divide into two.
- Roll each half into thin circles and spread onto pan.
- Top with your favourite pizza sauce & toppings.
- Bake for 15 minutes on low rack. Watch for browning around the 10 minute mark.
- Once done, let cool for about 5 to 10 minutes before cutting into slices.
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