Recipe: Shahir's Ultimate Pizza Dough

Say goodbye to your store bought pizza dough! This fluffy, crispy dough is so good, it might just inspire you to change careers. At least it did for our resident food expert, Shahir Massoud. He was crunching numbers as an accountant when he decided to get away from it all and fly to Italy.

After eating his way through the Italian countryside (and getting fired from 2 more accounting jobs) he finally decided to enroll in culinary school and the rest is saucy, cheesy, crispy history!

Ingredients

• 1 cups warm water
• 2 tsp active dry yeast
• 1 tbsp honey
• 3 cups double zero flour
• cups semolina
• 1 tbsp kosher salt
• 2 tbsp olive oil

Preparation

Combine warm water, yeast and honey in a medium bowl, set aside until yeast is activated and frothy, about 5 minutes.

In a large bowl, combine flour, semolina and kosher salt. Make a well in the center of the flour mix with a wooden spoon. When the yeast mixture is ready, pour it into the well. Add olive oil and begin stirring the liquid into the flour. When the flour is absorbed, turn the dough out onto the countertop and knead by hand until dough is smooth and elastic, 10-12 minutes.

Place the dough in a large oiled bowl and cover with a tea towel or plastic wrap to rise for one hour. Punch down risen dough in the bowl, cover again, and proof for at least one more hour. Dough can be refrigerated at this point for up to 3 days.

Now that you've got the dough under control, it's time to pick the perfect toppings. Here are some fool-proof combinations from our pizza-loving hosts:

Shahirs Favourites: Buffalo mozzarella slices, tomato sauce, fresh basil leaves, olive oil, salt and pepper

Stevens Favourites: Spicy Genoa salami, pepperoni, tomato sauce, grated mozzarella, pickled hot pepper

Andreas Favourites: Crispy bacon, sauteed mushrooms, goat cheese, tomato sauce, pickled jalapeno peppers

Jessis Favourites: Sauteed mushrooms, goat cheese, thyme, truffle oil, black olives