I do believe that using good flour makes a very big difference. I decided to use King Arthur brand unbleached all-purpose flour, a staple in my pantry. On a whim I had grabbed one of these three-packs of pizza crust yeast at my grocery store. I was skeptical, but for the price I thought I would try it.
I followed the recipe on the back of the packet for the flour, yeast, sugar, salt, water, and oil quantities, doubling the recipe. But then, of course, I did a few things "ad-lib" to the recipe.
I baked the dough on stoneware, sprayed lightly with olive oil cooking spray and sprinkled lightly with cornmeal.
Here's the recipe:
1 3/4 - 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 envelope of the pizza yeast (2 1/4 tsp)
1 1/2 tsp sugar
3/4 tsp salt
2/3 cup very warm water
3 Tbsp oil
(I doubled all of this.)
Combine 1 cup flour, yeast, sugar, and salt in a large bowl (used my stand mixer). Add water and oil. (I microwaved my water for 1 1/2 minutes.) Mix until well blended. Gradually add remaining flour just until soft dough ball is formed. It should slightly sticky. Knead on a floured surface for about 4 minutes. (I used my dough hook for 4 minutes.)
Remaining instructions are my own:
Half the dough by eyeballing, then with floured hands pat it out onto the prepared stoneware; cover with slightly damp, clean dish towel.
Place stoneware on stovetop and begin heating your oven to 425°; OR, if you made your crust ahead of time, like I did, let it "rise" until time to go in the oven. (The yeast packet recipe does not instruct for any rising, but my results were so good, I think I'll let it sit next time too. I think it was about 1 1/2 - 2 hours before it finally went into the oven.)
No pre-baking required.
Brush oil lightly onto crust.
Top as desired.
Bake 15-20 minutes until crust and cheese are nice and golden.
If baking two pizzas that won't fit side-by-side, make sure you rotate them halfway through baking.
