To get a nice crisp pizza it is important to brush the pizza with little olive oil before baking in the oven. Also while making the dough make sure you are using good quality yeast and olive oil. Usually people do not give much importance to yeast. But yeast is the rising agent and if that does not work properly your bread will not come out well. If the yeast is old then its activity will be less so the dough will not rise properly. Yeast has to be dissolved in luke warm water only. Too hot or cold water can make them inactive or even kill them.
Pizza base will come out nice if you use ovens instead of convection microwave. Even if you are using an oven make sure you place the dough on a hot tile or hot pizza stone for even cooking. Otherwise your bottom part will be uncooked.
Mixing the flour with olive oil before adding water is also important. This technique is called short crust. When the flour is rubbed with oil you generally get a nice crispiness.
Recipe for pizza dough
Ingredients
Flour - 3 cups
Olive oil - 2 tbsp
Salt - 1tsp
Yeast - 2 tsp (active dry yeast)
Water - 1 cup (105 to 115F)
Sugar - 1tbs plus 1/2 tsp
Process
- Dissolve the 1/2 tsp sugar and yeast in luke warm water. Let it stand for 10 minutes. It will start becoming frothy if the yeast is active.
- In a large bowl mix the flour and olive oil.
- To the flour mixture add yeast, sugar, salt and water. Knead the dough well to get a good pizza base. From sticky it will start becoming soft and will start to stretch well.
- Rest it in a hot place or a warm bowl till it doubles up in volume. It will take about 2 hours.
- Flour the working surface gently. Using a rolling pin make it as thin as you want. Add the toppings.
- Bake in a preheated oven (425F) for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and place it on oven rack to prevent the bottom from becoming soggy.
- Serve.
