Pizza

Once a month we have pizza for dinner, but we don't pay those high prices that the local pizza chains charge.  It only takes about 90 minutes and $2.00 a piece to make a fresh pizza that my family devours.   And guess what, I don't spend a lot of time kneading the dough, because I use my food processor to do all the work!!  Watch how easy it is:  This recipe will make 2 - 14 inch pizza dough, (you can cook one and freeze the other if you only need one).  This dough also makes great calzones.

- 3 1/2 cups flour (we like a thin crust, so I use bread flour, if you like a chewier crust use all purpose flour)
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 envelope instant dry yeast
- 2 tsp. kosher salt
- 1 1/2 cups warm water, (around 110 degrees)
- 2 Tabs olive oil

In your food processor bowl combine the flour, sugar, yeast and salt.  Pulse for about 30 seconds - just to blend.

 This next step is strictly optional!!  I like my dough to have flavor, so I add seasonings at this point.  Usually 1 tbsp each of garlic powder, onion powder, oregano, Italian seasoning, and dried parsley.  But this is just my family's liking.  It adds so much more flavor to the pizza dough.  Then I pulse it again for 30 seconds to blend all the seasonings into the flour mixture.

Next with the processor running, add in the 2 Tbsp of olive oil

And slowly add in the warm water.  Once you have added in about 1-1/4 cup of the water, start watching as the dough comes together in a ball.  Once the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl STOP adding water.  If the dough is too dry, you can keep adding water 1 Tabs at a time, if the dough is too wet and sticky you can add more flour 1 Tabs at a time.  The key is to get the dough to form a ball and pull way from the sides of the bowl.

It will look like this.

Lightly flour your work surface and scrape your dough from the processor bowl unto the surface.  Now gently kneed the dough for about 5 minutes until it forms a smooth ball.

 It will look like this

 Pour 1 Tabs olive oil into a large bowl.  Use your fingers to spread the olive oil around and grease the bowl.

Place the dough in the bowl and use the olive oil left on your fingers to grease the top and sides of the dough ball.

Cover with a plastic wrap and place in a warm place for 1 hour to rise.  The hard part of your pizza dough making is done.  I now use the next hour to make my pizza sauce and chop my toppings.  You can make your sauce from scratch using some fresh tomatoes, onions, garlic, olive oil and basil, (letting it cook down for about 30 minutes).  You can open a can of tomato sauce and add seasonings.  You can open a jar of pizza sauce.  The choice is yours, just as the choice of toppings are yours, depending on how much time, energy and creativity your have.

 OK - it's been 30 minutes and you can see that the dough has already doubled.  It smells wonderful.  Now's the time to put your pizza stone in the oven and turn it on to 500 degrees.  A hot, hot oven is the key to good pizza dough.  If you don't have a pizza stone, you can turn a baking sheet upside down and place that in the oven.  The key is to get the heat radiated up to the bottom of the pizza crust.

Now it's been an hour and you can see how much the dough has risen.

 Turn the dough out on your lightly floured surface and divide in half.  Now cover with a clean towel and let the dough rest for 10 minutes.

 While the dough is resting, get a piece of parchment paper and spread some cornmeal on it.  This will allow the pizza dough to slide around easily.

 Shape your dough into a round ball, (or if your going to do a square pizza a square shape - they do only square pizzas in Italy).  Then roll and stretch your dough out.  I usually start with a rolling pin, then switch to my hands until I get it to the size I want the dough.  Sometimes I do round, sometimes I do square, sometimes they are rectangle, who knows what the shape will be when I am done, (it's homemade with love!!).

Now this is the MOST important thing with pizza dough, (I learned it over 40 years ago when I worked in a little local pizza shop).  You MUST dock your pizza dough all over to keep it from forming air bubbles.   You may still get some bubbles, but you can push them back down, and you won't get as many as you would if you don't dock the dough.  Trust me.

Now slide the dough, while still on the parchment paper into the 500 degree oven on the pizza stone.  After 5 minutes use your pizza peel to lift the pizza and remove the parchment paper.

 See how nicely the dough is browning  It has a few bubbles but those will drop down. Cook for another 3 or 4 minutes, (depending on how hot your oven cooks).

 See how nice the bottom of the pizza looks.

And the air bubbles have dropped, down the front looks nice.  While the other dough cooks, I'm going to make a margarita pizza.  I have some tomatoes, freshly grated mozzarella cheese and fresh basil.  YUMMY!!   I made a simple sauce with tomato sauce from last years garden, and a few seasonings.  Nothing fancy.

 The other dough is out of the oven, and this pizza is ready to go in the oven for about 5 minutes, (just until the cheese melts and the tomatoes are cooked).  By precooking the dough, we won't have to worry about a soggy pizza crust.

Now this is the real secret to good tasting pizza.  I just picked this basil from my garden.  I am going to chiffonad' and sprinkle it on top of the pizza after I take them out of the oven.  Nothing says fresh pizza like the taste of fresh basil.

 And there is my favorite pizza - margarita.  Fresh from the oven.  My grandson, (Ian), his mother, and I would devour this in one sitting.

 For my husband, I'm going to make one with a little more substance.  I'll add some pepperoni, mushroom, onion, green pepper, Anaheim pepper, and fresh mozzarella cheese.  When I make pizza, I just look through the refrigerator and whatever I have on hand, that's what kind of pizza we have.

There it is, now to add a little fresh basil on top and the men in the family will be happy, happy, happy.  And both pizzas were under $2 each.

Oh yea, a good one to try is a white garlic sauce with chicken, (very good).  Now go make some pizza and try your own combinations.  Let me know what you top your pizza dough with.  Enjoy!!