Best Homemade Pizza Dough Ever (with and without oven)

Ingredients:

• Water (Luke warm) ½ cup + 1 cup
• Instant Yeast (khameer) 2 ¼ Tsp (2 Tsp + ¼ Tsp)
• Sugar 2 Tsp
• Salt 1½ Tsp
• Vinegar 1 Tsp
• Olive Oil 3 Tbsp
• All-purpose flour (maida) 4 Cups
• Semolina (Sooji)

Preparation of Dough:

1. In a bowl add 1/2 cup luke warm water, yeast and sugar. Mix until no lumps are there.
2. Leave to proof for 5 minutes.
3. After 5 minutes, take 1 cup of luke warm water and add salt, vinegar and olive oil to it. Mix thoroughly.
4. Add this mixture to three cups of all purpose flour and start kneading.
5. Keep adding the all purpose flour little by little from the remaining one cup of flour  and knead until the dough is soft and smooth (about 7-10 minutes). Note: Do not use full 4 cups of the all purpose flour. Use up to 3/4th cup.
6. Shape the dough into a large ball and apply little oil all over it.
7. Oil a bowl and place the dough ball in it. Cover the bowl, place in a warm place and allow to proof for about one hour or until doubled in size.
8. Preheat the oven at 230 *C. Start the oven 30 minutes before taking out the dough from the warm place so that when the dough is ready the oven is also ready.
9. Now take the dough out and divide into two or three parts. One batch of dough makes two thick crust large pizzas and 3 thin crust large pizzas.
10. Sprinkle some semolina on the pizza pan. This ensures uniform heat distribution and hence the base would be crunchy and not soggy.
11. Shape the dough balls into pizzas.
12. Oil the dough and poke all over with the help of a fork.
13. Bake for 6 minutes at 230*C and take out. Dough will only be half-cooked at this  stage. This step is called pre-baking.
14. You can wrap it, make it airtight and refrigerate it for 2-3 days, freeze it for 3 months. Defrost when needed, apply topping and bake like a regular pizza.
15. If you want to make pizza the same day, then after pre-bake is done, add the pizza sauce and your favorite topping and bake for 8-10 minutes at 230*C.
16. Enjoy!
17.  

Instructions for Oven:

1. Oven Preheat: Temperature 230 *C, Duration: 30 minutes, both rods on (upper and lower).
2. Pizza base prebake: Temperature 230*C, Duration: 6 minutes, both rods on (upper and lower).
3. Pizza bake (After adding the toppings: Temperature 230*C, Duration 8-10 minutes, both rods on (upper and lower).
4. For golden color on cheese: Temperature 230*C, Duration 1-2 minutes with only top rod until cheese is golden.

Instructions for Stove Top:

1. Pan Preheat: Flame: Medium low flame, Duration: 1-2 minutes (It should not smoke).
2. Pizza base pre-cook: Flame: Low, Lid covered with aluminum foil or kitchen towel, Duration 6 minutes.
3. Pizza base cooking: Flame: low, duration 8-10 minutes.

Tips to make a perfect base:

1. Yeast Proofing Time: 5 minutes
2. Dough rising time: 1.5 hours
3. Only use measuring spoons and measuring cups…tea cup and spoon will not give you good results.
4. Water should be Luke warm (neem garam) not too hot not too cold.
5. If yeast does not foam then the dough will not rise
6. To measure the flour, do not pack the cup with flour. Measure lightly and level them.
7. Start with 3 cups of flour. Keep mixing and then kneading. The mixture will be quite sticky keep adding little bit of flour. At a max, you should use 3 cups and 3/4 cup. Using more than that will result in hard dough which will not be soft when baked.
8. Knead for 7 minutes straight until sough is smooth and stretchy.
9. Keep the dough for full 1.5 hours at a warm place.
10. If you keep the dough for longer it will become sour.

Freezing Instructions:

1. After PRE-BAKE for 6 minutes, let the dough come to room temperature and then wrap it in a bag to make it airtight and freeze for up to one month. When you want to bake it just put it at room temperature until it is defrosted, add your favorite toppings and bake according to baking instructions.
2. You cannot freeze stove-top dough.