Pizza

Combine warm (to the touch) water, sugar, and yeast. Give it a stir. After a few minutes it should bubble. Let it sit for about 5 minutes.

Combine flour, salt, olive oil and yeast mixture. Mix together until it is no longer soaking wet. After it becomes doughy, begin kneading. Set timer for 10 minutes. Add flour as necessary if it is too sticky.

Set the dough in a bowl with olive oil spread around (to prevent sticking). Let it sit for at least one hour but it can sit for up to 24 hours. The longer it sits, the better the flavor.

After the wait time, the dough needs to be reactivated again. Sprinkle flour on a board, counter top and knead again for about 2-5 minutes. Divide into smaller pieces (this recipe has the capacity to make 3-4 pizzas). Let it sit for another hour. Use this time to prep other ingredients.

If using pantry dough, thaw it first by putting it on a Ziploc bag (the packaging lets water in), then soak in water. Or allow to thaw on the counter for a few hours.

Preheat oven to as hot as it can get. I set mine to 550. We are trying to mimic a brick oven (which can get to 800 F). You also need good bottom heat. Please leave the pizza pan in the oven. How do you put the pizza later? Read on.

True, this is a little bit more work than building the pizza in the pan then putting it in. But it's worth it. The bottom heat cooks the dough quickly making it crispy and preventing that soggy base.

While the oven preheats, begin shaping the dough. You may have to knead it and sprinkle flour if it is too sticky. You could use a rolling pin or wine bottle to flatten and shape it. Or you can also let gravity do its thing by letting the dough hang on the end of the table, or tossing it and spinning it (which is fun).

Only begin this step once the oven has completely preheated. Otherwise, your dough becomes soggy.

So, how do you put the pizza in the oven? If you have a pizza peel (those wooden thingy's they use to put pizza in pizzerias) great. But more than likely you might not. Here is a DIY solution. Flip a baking pan or another pizza pan. Sprinkle flour on it to prevent the dough from sticking.

So topping the pizza. Don't panic, but you do need to work qucikly. The longer the sauce stays on the dough, the stickier it gets. I like to have everything right in front of me while doing this step. Here are some tips for the toppings:

Tip 1: Don't use too much sauce, just enough to lightly coat it. (Too much and it gets soggy)
Tip 2: Precook, precook, precook. (all meats, and ingredients with high liquid content like mushrooms)
Tip 3: Putting olive oil in the edges makes it crispy.
Tip 4: If possible, use block cheese. You can then shred it. Or just rip it and add blocks of cheese all over the place.
Tip 5: Mozzarella is probably your most common cheese option.
Tip 6: Each topping you put, shake the 'peel' a little to prevent it from sticking.

Bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes. Monitor for the darkness of the cheese and bread.