Pizza

Learn to make homemade pizza with the most delicious and easy dough!

📝 Ingredients

• 4 cups all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons active dry yeast
• 1/4 teaspoon sugar
• 1 cup warm water
• 1/4 cup 7-up or Sprite, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup milk, lukewarm
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon semolina (fine or thick) or cornmeal (see notes)
• 4 oz pizza sauce
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• pepperoni, as much as needed
• 8 oz white mushrooms, cleaned and thinly sliced
• 1 green pepper, washed, dried and thinly sliced
• 2 3/4 cups grated mozzarella cheese

👨‍🍳 Instructions

1. 1Place the flour in a medium size bowl.
2. 2In a separate small bowl, combine the dry yeast, sugar, and warm water. Stir to combine and allow to sit for approximately 5 minutes. You should see the yeast bubbling up on the surface of the water.
3. 3To the flour add the yeast mixture, 7-up, milk, oil, and salt.
4. 4Knead with your hands until smooth, for approximately 5 – 7 minutes. Alternatively you can use the hook attachment of your stand mixer. Mix for a few minutes until smooth. If you find the dough too sticky, add 1 tablespoon of flour at a time. Transfer the dough to an oiled bowl and cover loosely with a clean kitchen towel. Allow the dough to rest in a warm, draft-free place for a couple of hours until it has doubled in size.
5. 5(Note: you can actually freeze the dough at this point, prior to it rising. Once you are ready to use it, remove the dough from the freezer, let it thaw, and then allow it to rise prior to rolling it out.)
6. 6Once your dough has risen to double its size, punch it down and knead it again. (If you decide to freeze your dough at this point, you can. Once you need the dough, just remove it from the freezer for a few hours to defrost prior to rolling it out; it doesn’t need to rise again).
7. 7Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
8. 8Take a rolling pin and rub it with a little bit of oil so the dough doesn’t stick. Flour your surface, and roll out the dough into a circle large enough to be slightly larger than your pizza pan. Here we use a a 16 inch pizza pan.
9. 9Grease your pizza pan with a little bit of olive oil. Sprinkle 1 teaspoon of semolina (thin or thick) or cornmeal on bottom of pan; this will add a little bit of a crunch.
10. 10Fit your rolled out dough on top of the pizza pan.
11. 11Add the pizza sauce first, then sprinkle with the oregano.
12. 12Then add the rest of the ingredients in the following order: pepperoni, mushrooms and green peppers. Top all of your ingredients with the grated mozzarella.
13. 13Trim the excess dough from around the pan.
14. 14Bake your pizza on the bottom rack of your oven for approximately 20-30 minutes. You will know your pizza is done when the bottom is nicely browned and your cheese has melted.
15. 15Enjoy!