Artie's Basic Italian Bread and Pizza Crust

 

This is a base recipe for many of my dishes. 

 

Ingredients:

6 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
3 cups of tepid water
1 pkg Quick Rise Yeast
2 Tbspns Vegetable Oil
  
Directions:
Mix 4 cups of flour with salt... two minutes
Dissolve yeast in 2 cups of tepid water - around 95 - 105 degrees
(if water is too hot or too cold yeast will not dissolve)

Add yeast mixture to salted flour, Knead. if using mixer use hook and mix on slow speed till consistent.
Once dough is mixed slowly add the rest of the water and flour until you have a consistent soft dough.
(if too soft add a little flour till you have what you like if too hard, add water)

Place soft dough in a large bowl with room for dough to double.
Keep loosely covered in a warm place for one hour.
Remove dough from bowl onto a well floured work surface.
Knead dough till smooth.

For bread:
Cover loosely and let it proof for 1/2 hour.
Shape into bread.
Bake bread @ 475 F for 20 minutes.
Pizza @ 475 F for 15 minutes.
For Pizza:
For A Crispy Pizza Crust, do not proof dough. Separate into amount you will use.
Roll out what you will use immediately for pizza.
Place remainder in fridge immediately. I use quart sized zip lock bags.
When ready to roll out dough, just remove from refrigerator and roll it out and construct your pizza.
Half the recipe makes a nice thick 16 inch pizza. For medium thin pizza divide into four portions.
For a super thin pizza you may divide each doughball again. Raise cooking temp to 485 degrees F.
 If you do this make sure you watch your pizza in the oven closely and pat down any blisters in the cheese while baking to avoid burnt cheese. If you can keep your pizza from burning in the oven at this temp be patting down cheese bubbles you will get a very nice crispy crust. (This works best if you don't overload your pizza with ingredients.)
For bread, half the recipe makes about a one pound loaf of Crispy Italian Bread.
Divide accordingly

To use refrigerated dough for bread. Remove from fridge let dough warm about a half hour then knead and let proof for another half hour. Shape into bread and bake @ 475 F for 20 minutes.
Enjoy!