I love making pizzas or flatbreads. Kneading the dough is definitely one of my favorite parts in making bread dough, just because it takes a lot of effort, love, and attention. Plus, it’s a great arm workout, so there’s that too.

For my dough, I kept it really simple and went with my very straightforward focaccia recipe. I chose to top the dough with parmesan cheese, tomatoes, and basil, just so that those toppings can bake into the dough and give it more complexity. Overall, I would highly recommend this for a simple snack or an appetizer to a meal!

For the dough:
2 cups all purpose flour + more
1/2 cup lukewarm water
1 packet active-dry yeast powder + 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1/4 cup olive oil
a pinch of salt

Combine water and yeast mixture. Allow it to sit for 10 minutes in a warm room so that it can get bubbly.

Combine the yeast water with olive oil and flour and knead together. Once the dough is formed, with a nice smooth surface, add in the salt. Wrap tightly with plastic wrap. Allow the dough to expand at room temperature for 1 hour and then deflate, the refrigerate overnight. Do not worry if the dough starts to smell boozy. When you bake it off with the herbs and toppings, that flavor will also go away too.

For the toppings:
Cherry tomatoes
Basil
Parmesan cheese shavings
salt
pepper
oregano flakes
thyme
olive oil

To bake:
Roll out the dough into two long, extremely flat pieces. I stress extremely flat because in my case, I did not roll mine out flat enough, and they wound up being on the loafier side. Press the toppings into the dough and bake at 400 degrees F for 20 minutes (adjust to 30 minuets if your dough was too thick like mine and comes out like a football). Serve while still warm.