Thin Crust Yeast Pizza Dough

Back in the day, my friend P introduced our gaggle of friends to the wonders of her mother's homemade pizza. The recipe was dutifully photocopied (Yes - I said it - PHOTOCOPIED), passed around, smeared with tomato sauce and became its own legend. It became a staple at all our get-togethers, study breaks, birthday parties and we started to get bold and brazen in our choice of toppings as well. Anchovies and pineapple, anyone, anyone?

Soon, the recipe was indirectly handed over to our moms, who then started making it at their card parties and get-togethers and so on.

But life happened, takeout was discovered, and the little Pizza-Recipe-That-Was gradually fell to the side. I dug out that old tattered photocopied recipe recently after reading several homemade pizza posts on the internet and was thrilled at how wholesome it was to once again bite into a freshly made, piping hot pizza straight out of the oven and chock full off toppings of my OWN choice.
Without having to deal with a 16 year old on the phone - "You said you wanted half cheese on that? Which side?"
Silence....


Cooks Note : This recipe renders enough dough for 1 medium thin crust pizza. In most cases, the pizza dough can be baked "blind" at 350 degrees F for approx 20 minutes. Then add toppings of choice and cheese and bake again till toppings are heated through and cheese melts.

Basic Yeast Pizza Dough - Thin Crust (Source - Years ago, source unknown - all due credit goes to my buddy P and her super-cook Mom)

2 cups All Purpose or wholewheat flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 package instant dry yeast
1/4 tsp sugar
2/3 cup lukewarm water
2 Tbsp softened butter or olive oil

1.Mix flour and salt in a bowl.
2.Dissolve sugar in the water, add yeast and leave in a warm place to become frothy (about 10 min)
3.Stir yeast liquid into flour and mix into a soft dough with butter or oil.
4.Cover the bowl and leave in a warm place for dough to rise (about 45 min).
5.Punch down the dough, then roll out to fit onto a pizza stone/circular pizza baking pan. The dough is quite elastic so I had to use a lot of pulling, patting, coaxing and stretching to get it to conform to a circle =). Hence the lumpy texture in the pic above....
Use as directed in any recipe requiring pizza dough.