During my cooking seminars in Portland, OR this year, I had the pleasure of meeting Zeke, the owner of Pizzeria Fratelli Tasso. He gave me a lesson on hand tossing dough.
Options are endless… home tossed, store-bought dough, par-baked or pre-baked; pizza crust can be formed from many things. I’ve even used sugar cookie dough, English muffins, biscuits, Rhode’s frozen roll dough, tortillas, hashbrowns and shredded zucchini as a crust for several kinds of pizza.
Blank canvas…
From my book, Cooking Seafood:
Crispy Pizza Crust
- 1 cup warm water
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 1 7-ounce envelope rapid-rise yeast
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3 1/2 cups flour
Add ingredients to bread machine and set to DOUGH setting. Divide dough into two equal balls. Dough can be used right away or stored in the refrigerator up to 3 days (crust develops a deeper flavor as yeast develops). Sprinkle cornmeal on a flat surface. Roll thin, sprinkling with cornmeal to prevent sticking. Let sit 20 minutes before topping. Makes 2 crusts. ON ROLLING/STRETCHING: For a thin and crispy crust, I like using a rolling pin. For all other pizzas ranging from thin to thick, I like to flatten out the dough and then either push it out on a floured surface to stretch it or using floured hands, stretch it out in my hands, letting gravity do the shaping.
Stretching…
Throwing…
Or try this Artisan Pizza Dough from Camp Chef (recipe and photos from www.campchef.com)
Homemade Artisan Pizza Dough
Makes: 6 orange-sized dough balls which can be stretched to about a 12″ pizza
- 3 cups warm water
- 1 T. and 1 t. active dry yeast
- 1 T. and 1t. salt
- 4 cups all purpose flour
- 2 ½ cups bread flour
You will want a large, clean bowl to make and hold the dough in. Measure 3 cups warm water into bucket; add yeast, salt, and flour. Mix until all the flour is moist, the dough should be firm but sticky. Let this rise until double, about 1 hour. The dough is now ready to shape into dough balls or put in the fridge until ready to use, this will last up to 3 days. The dough is much easier to handle after being chilled in the fridge. When ready to use, scrape dough out of the bucket and shape into 6 dough balls the size of a large orange. Let them rise at room temperature for 30 minutes if not chilled and about 2 hours if chilled. The bread flour in the recipe is required in order to be able to stretch your dough very thin. You will find that a rolling pin will not be necessary. The dough should also be wetter than normal dough so that your pizza crust will have the air pockets of true artisan bread. Use flour to coat the dough so you can handle it. 
