Basic Pizza Dough

The Dough
2 cups white bread flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 1/2 tsp bread machine yeast(I use it for everything)
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup Extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 - 2 cups water (play around, it depends on your flour and the humidity)

You can also make this dough in the bread machine, if its free.....

Put all the ingredients in a large bowl (I use a large wooden salad bowl because its nice and wide and gives me lots of room to knead).  Mix it until it forms a nice ball, it should be stick but not messy.  Add a bit of flour or water until you get it where you want it.  Knead for 5-10 minutes until its smooth and elastic. Take the dough out of the bowl, and put a small amount of olive in the bowl(just enough to lightly coat the bread) Throw the dough back in, rolling it in the oil to coat.  Put a piece of plastic wrap lightly over the dough, and then a towel.  Find a warm spot for the dough to rise.  I put mine on top of the water heater and run a load on hot in the washer.  It seems to work pretty well and is a good incentive to do a load of laundry.  If you don't have a nice warm place to let your dough rise, a heating pad works well. You can do it in the oven if you're really in a rish, but put it as low as it will go and maybe keep the door cracked.  Anything abouve 140 can kill the yeast.  Yeast will rise, even without the warm area, it just rises much quicker with it. If it's a warm day a sunny window, or in my case, just out on the deck, works great.

After the dough has doubled in size, divide it in two and roll out both halves on a floured surface.  Keep its as thick or thin as you like (but remember it will puff back up so i reccomend between 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick) lay each crust on a baking sheet and cover with a towel to rise a bit while you preheat the oven to 425. No need to find a warm spot, i just lay it on the counter, or the stove.  After it has risen for about 10 minutes, use your fingers to poke in all over the dough like foccaccia bread.

Bake till it starts to get golden brown and crispy, keep an eye on it, all ovens are so different. I bake one crust at a time, they just seem to bake more evenly that way.  While the second one is baking, I do all the toppings on the crust that's already done.

Add whatever toppings you want, and pop back in the oven until they are warm and melty.