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My 189th recipe, "Easy Homemade Thick Crust Pizza", my favorite style of pizza. I cook chapati and gravy for most of the weeknight dinners. When it is the turn of Friday night, I love to have some fun. Movie night is the perfect way for me and RK to wind down after a busy week. While watching the movie, it has become a custom in my house to have pizza. For RK, it is the perfect movie night dinner and he would not settle for anything else. At most times we used to order pizza from Pizza Hut. However, once I receivedmy pizza cold after 2 hrs, I stopped ordering from them. Instead we chose to buy pizza from the frozen aisle of my supermarket and bake it right before the movie start. While it is a good alternative, the only challenge is that I do not get a option to customize. RK especially loves a pizza with a really thick crust. The crust which is crispy on the outside, yet soft and spongy on the inside. So, at times I like to bake my pizza from scratch at home. While I have experimented with different types of yeast, at most times it ends in a failure. Either the crust would not rise and become crispy and it takes many hours to let the dough to rise. Last time around I tried using Fleischmann's Rapidrise yeast to bake my pizza adapting a recipe I found their website. The crust turned out perfect and process was also not too complicated. Overall it was a completely satisfactory movie night and pizza dinner 🙂
Easy Homemade Thick Crust Pizza
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Prep Time 30 minutes mins
Cook Time 30 minutes mins
Total Time 1 hour hr
Servings 6
Ingredients
For crust
- All purpose flour - 2 ½ Cups
- Rapid Rise Yeast - 1 packet or 2 ¼ tsp
- Salt - ¾ tsp
- Warm water - 1 Cup about 120 F
- Olive oil - 2 tsp + For brushing
- Cornmeal / Semolina - For dusting
For topping
- Pizza Sauce - As per taste
- Olives - As per taste
- Onions - As per taste
- Tomato - As per taste
- Green bellpepper - As per taste
- Mozarella Cheese or Italian Cheese Blend - As per taste
- Salt - a small pinch
- Ground Black pepper - a small pinch
Instructions
First add 2 Cups of the flour, yeast, salt into a large mixing bowl and give a nice mix.
Add the olive oil, warm water and mix well into a sticky dough.
Transfer the dough onto a floured surface and add ¼ Cup of flour to it. Knead well until the flour is mixed into the dough. Add the remaining ¼ of flour and continue to knead to form a smooth dough. In total you would have to knead for about 3-4 mins.
Cover the dough and leave it to rise for 10 mins.
Now, split the dough into two equal portions and roll the dough into a circle. Adjust the thickness of the circle based on your preference. Sprinkle some cornmeal / semolina on a greased baking sheet. Transfer the dough to a baking sheet and keep the dough covered for another 10 mins. Preheat the oven to 400 F. Bake the pizza crust for 10 mins in the preheated oven.
Remove the crust from the oven and spread the pizza sauce on top. Add toppings of your choice. Return the pizza to the oven to bake for a further 15 - 20 mins until the crust is nicely golden and the cheese is melted.Remove the pizza from the oven and brush the sides with olive oil. Wait for 5 mins and then cut the pizza.
Enjoy warm.
Notes | FAQ
- The above recipe makes 2 X 8 inches thick crust pizza.
- The above recipe uses Rapid Rise yeast. It cannot be substituted directly with any other type of yeast.
- Since all flours are different you might need little less or more than 2 ½ cups of all purpose flours. Hence I add 2 Cups initially and gradually add the remaining ½ Cup and adjust based on the dough consistency.
- If you need a thin crust pizza, roll the dough thin and you can skip the rising process in step 5 (after rolling the dough).
- Add any topping as per your preference.
- The baking time of the pizza would depend on the thickness of your crust. In total, the baking time can vary anywhere from 20 to 30 mins.
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