Pizza dough - in painstaking detail

My good friend Simplegifts3 [Indelible Grace] commented on today's post about Pizza Night:

Would . . . you . . . PLEASE, pretty, pretty please post, in painstaking detail, how to make a crust? I already have a stone from Pampered Chef.

Ask and you shall receive

1. Proofing the yeast

Basic Pizza Dough

1 tablespoon active dry yeast
3.4 cup plus 2 tablespoons lukewarm water
2-3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus 1/2 cup for working
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

In a small mixing bowl, stir together dry yeast and lukewarm water until the yeast granules dissolve. Leave at room temperature until yeast foams slightly and looks creamy (about 10 minutes)

2. Mixing dough in a processor

The dough in the Kitchenaid mixing bowl

We mix our dough with a Cuisinart food processor or in our Kitchenaid mixer. If you have one of these, fit the processor with the metal blade and add the flour and any other dry ingredients to the work bowl. With the machine running, slowly pour the yeast mixture through the feed tube and continue processing just until the mixture forms a ball of dough that rides around on the blade. —Skip to step four unless you're handing mixing the dough.

3. Mixing dough by hand

If mixing the dough by hand, combine the flour and any other dry ingredients and heap in a mound or put in a large bowl. Make a well in the center, add the yeast mixture and stir with a fork in a circular motion, gradually incorporating the water until the dough forms.

4. Kneading the dough

If the dough was mixed by hand, transfer it to a lightly floured work surface and knead lightly with the heel of your hand—pushing the dough forward and turning it slightly, then folding it back over and repeating—until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. If the dough was mixed in a processor, knead for only 1–2 minutes.

5. Letting the dough rise

Lightly coat a large bowl with oil. Gather the dough into a ball, place it in the bowl and cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap. Leave at room temperature to rise until doubled in bulk (about 1–2 hours).

6. Punching down the dough

Dough on the paddle waiting for toppings

Before shaping the pizza, transfer the risen dough to a lightly floured work surface and, using the heel of your hand, gently punch it down to deflate it slightly. Roll the dough out with a rolling pin to shape it into the form you prefer.

7. Preparing the dough for toppings

The end result—a happy family

Sprinkle a small amount of corn meal on a pizza paddle (to allow the dough to easily slide from the paddle into the oven). Pinch the sides of the dough all around the circumference to form a raised edge. This will help keep the sauce inside the edges of the dough.

Add your favorite toppings and slide the prepared pizza onto your preheated pizza stone to cook.

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At least that's how we do it. I hope you enjoy it as much as we do. It's one of our favorite family traditions.