Ted's Pizza Dough

This is from The Food You Want To Eat by Ted Allen. It is the best pizza dough I have ever tried (if you like thin crust pizza that is more salty than sweet...very Italian-like).

1/2 TBS. active dry yeast
1 c. warm water
2 TBS. olive oil
3 c. all-purpose flour
2 tsp. kosher salt

1. In large bowl, stir together yeast, water and olive oil. Then add flour, sprinkle the salt over the flour and stir into wet ingredients with a wooden spoon. When dough gets too stiff to stir with a spoon, knead in the unincorporated flour by hand, picking up the dough with one hand and pressing it against the sides and bottom of the bowl to pick up any bits, and then folding it over on itself so that it all sticks together. Do this until you have a coherent, if still messy, ball of dough.

2. Turn out onto clean work surface and knead for 10 minutes (3-5 will suffice if you feel lazy or get a mixer with a dough hook) At the beginning, the dough will be sticky; but don't add flour and don't flour the surface. Just keep kneading. The dough will eventually get very smooth and supple. It can be sort of meditative after you get going. Or, you may choose to view it as a workout for your arms.

3. Rinse the bowl. Dry it. Grease it with a bit of olive oil. Put dough into bowl; cover with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel and let rise in a warm, draft-free place until it has increased about 1 1/2 times in volume, about an hour. If you're not ready when the dough is, just punch it down again and let it sit until you're ready for it. It's not going anywhere.

4. Preheat oven to 500. If using a stone, put it in the oven and heat for 25 minutes.

5. Dust work surface with cornmeal or flour. Cut pizza dough in two and put one half on work surface; set other half aside. Use your fingers to flatten the dough into a disk. Press and stretch the dough to make a thin circle or rectangle, 10 -12 inches in diameter and 1/4 inch thick (I actually just used a rolling pin because I'm no good at free forming dough with my fingers alone).

6. Transfer dough to stone or baking sheet, add toppings as desired. Bake (475 degrees for baking sheet) until edges are lightly browned, about 12-15 minutes (I checked at 9-10 minutes and mine was done). Remove from oven, sprinkle with a bit of pecorino, romano, parmesano or asiago and some fresh herbs if desired.

I like to use BBQ chicken/red peppers/purple onion/monterey jack cheese OR homemade marinara sauce/monterey jack cheese. I will post the marinara sauce next. ;0)