One Crust to Rule Them All

I have a new favorite pizza crust recipe. My old favorite recipe was very biscuit-like, with lots of crunch on the outside and soft poof on the interior. Its main problems were in being so crunchy and falling prey to pizza's Enemy Number One: sogginess.

Sog does not a good pizza make.

Going through my recipes one day, I ran across some recipe sheets meant to be kept in a three-ring binder that were floating free. I think they were random junk mail I received several years ago, and I kept some that looked decent. One was for a yeast-based pizza crust.

Before this new recipe, the only other yeast crust I'd tried took forever. It's yeast, after all, and requires time to rise. I was under the impression that all recipes were that obnoxious, but apparently I was wrong. This crust is just as easy as the biscuit crust, but with a delicious bread-y quality: it rises well, is soft all around, and does a marvelous job of not getting uber-soaked in the sauce.

Amazing Pizza Crust
1 1/2 c. white flour
1 c. wheat flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 pkg. (1/4 oz.) dry yeast
1 c. water, lukewarm(ish)
1 tbsp. plus 2 tsp. olive oil

Mix together flours, salt, and yeast. Make a well in the mixture and add all of the oil and the water (I find the crust turns out better if the water is a bit warmer than lukewarm). Mix till you have a dough. Knead it gently (with extra flour, if needed) and press into a greased pan - either a 12-inch pizza pan or a 12x9 cookie sheet. Cover and allow to rise for 10 minutes. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Bake the crust for 5 to 7 minutes. Add whatever toppings you'd like - the picture above features an olive and garlic pizza sprinkled with Italian seasoning. I like to sprinkle it with whatever pre-shredded six-cheese mix is on sale. Bake another 15 to 20 minutes or until perfectly golden. Slice and nom.