basic pizza dough

Ingredients

• Sponge
• 1 package (2-1/2 tsp) active dry yeast
• 1 cup lukewarm water
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tbsp flour
• Dough
• 1 sponge (recipe above)
• 4-1/2 cups flour, sifted
• 1 cup lukewarm water
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp salt

Instructions

1. Step one: In a large bowl, combine all sponge ingredients. Whisk well. Cover with a cloth and let sit for 15 minutes. Sponge mixture should look foamy. If it does not look foamy, redo by either cooling or lowering the temperature of the water. If you do this 2 or 3 times and yeast does not look foamy, you may need new yeast.
2. Step two: To make the dough, sift the 4 cups of flour in the bowl with the sponge mixture. Add 1 cup water, oil and salt. Mix well either by hand or in a mixer or food processor. The dough should be sticky, so flour your hands. Remove and knead with both hands for 5 to 6 minutes. Add more water or flour by the teaspoon in order to have an elastic ball of dough.
3. Step three: Divide the dough into 4 quarters and shape into slightly round disks. Lightly flour a cookie sheet and place the disks on the sheet. Cover with a towel and let rise 2 hours in a consistently warm environment.
4. With flour-covered hands, reknead dough and shape each into a flat disk, roughly 1/4-inch thick. Use rolling pin, but be gentle and don`t press hard on the dough. You can press out with your fingers on a cookie sheet that has been sprayed with nonfat cooking spray, or use 1 tbsp of cornmeal distributed evenly on the cookie sheet. Lay the dough on the cornmeal. This will help sticking.
5. Makes 4 8- to 10 inch crusts that can be topped with the toppings of your choice.