Basic Pizza Dough (v)

This is a basic, vegan, thin pizza crust. Not to thin to be cracker like, but thin and still have some doughy texture in it. The high ratio of oil makes it a little more savoury as well.

• 1/2 cup warm water 
• 1/4 cup olive oil, plus a little more
• 2 1/2 tsp or 1 packet of yeast
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup cornmeal plus some for dusting (optional)
• 1 3/4 - 2 cups all purpose baking flour (Do not substitute gluten free flour - it won't work!)

1. In medium mixing bowl, mix water, oil, yeast, sugar, salt, and cornmeal. Let stand for 10 minutes while the yeast foams (proofs). (If the mix does not produce any foam the yeast may be too old and inactive.)
2. Add the flour (1 1/2 cup) and stir until it comes together. (See notes.)
3. On a lightly floured surface, knead dough for 5 minutes, adding the remaining flour as needed. After five minutes the dough should be slightly tacky but not stick to the surface or your hands.
4. Form into a ball, place back in bowl and lightly coat with olive oil. Cover bowl with a tea towel and let rise for 2 hours in a warm place until doubled in size. (See notes.)
5. Place dough on a lightly floured surface and press with heels of hand into a disc, lightly coat with oil, cover with parchment or clean tea towel, and let it rest for 30 minutes.
6. Lightly dust a cookie sheet or pizza stone with corn meal and set aside. (Optional step.)
7. Place dough on cookie sheet or pizza stone and use heels of hands to press the dough out until in nearly covers the entire cookie sheet. Dust the edges with more corn meal. Cover with clean tea towel or parchment paper and let rest for 15 minutes. Preheat oven to 500ºF.
8. Add pizza toppings. 
9. Place on middle rack of the oven and bake for about 13-18 minutes, or until crust is golden brown.

Notes:

1. If you omit the corn meal from this recipe you will need to increase the flour by 1/4 cup. I highly recommend the cornmeal though - it really adds to the flavour of this pizza crust.
2. The key to yeast doughs rising is the temperature of the air they are in: the warmer the air, the faster they will rise. I had just finished broiling something else when I set this out to rise, placing the bowl on top of my stove, allowing the residual heat from the oven to warm the bowl my dough was in: it took a mere 30 minutes for it to double in size from that heat. But if it's summer and you have the air conditioning on it may take longer than the 2 hours listed above to double in size.
3. Do NOT substitute gluten free flour in this recipe - it will NOT WORK! The gluten in wheat flour is what allows it to stretch while staying together. Gluten free pizza crust is made much differently: I am working on a gluten free recipe to post.