Thursday, September 13, 2012

The Short, Happy Life of A Homemade Pizza

Last night I made pizza from scratch. After the dough had risen and rested I pulled it into pan shape, laid it on an oiled pizza pan, brushed it liberally with olive oil and laid on sweet pepper slices.


Next came mushrooms,


followed by onions and black olives.


Finally I added sauce and pepperoni slices. Putting the sauce on top of the vegetables keeps them from drying out.


After it baked for 15 minutes I added provolone cheese and baked it 15 minutes more. I sprinkled on some parmesan cheese. (Sorry, folks, I favor good old Kraft grated parmesan, but you gourmet cooks can use the fancy stuff.)


The dough recipe was in an Italian breads cookbook from the library. I've used it so long that the name of the book is lost somewhere in my overcrowded mental filing cabinet. A good amount of olive oil makes the crust crisp and tender. It's also pretty easy to work with.

1 3/4 teaspoons dry yeast*
pinch of sugar
1 1.3 cups warm water
1/4 cup olive oil
1 1/2 cups unbleached flour
1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon salt

Put the warm water and sugar in a mixing bowl. Sprinkle in the yeast and let it sit for a few minutes. The yeast buds will bloom and rise to the top. Then mix in the remaining ingredients, stirring in the flour a cup or two at a time. Use the kneading blade in your electric mixer if you have one. If you don't, knead the dough on a floured cloth or board until it becomes elastic.

Turn the dough into a large oiled bowl and let it rise until doubled. Turn the dough out of the bowl and deflate it. Separate it into two equal parts and flatten them into circles about eight inches in diameter. Go away and prepare the vegetables for filling. Now that the dough has rested it will be much easier to form into pan-sized shapes.

Place the dough circles on well-oiled pizza pans and seal the dough with olive oil. Add fillings except for cheese.

Bake at 400ยบ for 15 minutes. Remove the pans and add cheese. Mozzarella is traditional but I prefer provolone. At this point I slide the pizzas out of the pan onto the baking stone that always sits on my oven rack. If you don't have a baking stone, just leave the pizzas in the pans. Return the pizzas to the oven and bake about 15 minutes more.

*Because I've baked yeast breads in my kitchen for more than 30 years, wild yeast abounds. It doesn't take much yeast to get a rise out of dough. I use only 1/4 teaspoon of yeast in this recipe.

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