Homemade Pizza

By KeyIngredient

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups warm water (105°F-115°F)
• 1 package (2 1/4 teaspoons) of active dry yeast (check the expiration date on the package)
• 3 1/2 cups bread flour (can use all-purpose but bread flour will give you a crisper crust)
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• Olive oil
• Cornmeal (to slide the pizza onto the pizza stone)
• Tomato sauce (purée)
• Mozzarella or Parmesan cheese, shredded
• Feta cheese
• Mushrooms, thinly sliced
• Bell peppers, stems and seeds removed, thinly sliced
• Italian sausage, cooked ahead
• Chopped fresh basil
• Pesto
• Pepperoni, thinly sliced
• Onions, thinly sliced
• Sliced ham
• A pizza stone, highly recommended if you want your pizza dough to be crusty
• A pizza peel or a flat baking sheet
• A pizza wheel for cutting the pizza, not required, but easier to deal with than a knife

Details

Servings 2
Preparation time 120mins
Cooking time 150mins
Adapted from simplyrecipes.com

Preparation

Step 1

Pizza Dough: Makes enough dough for two 10-12 inch pizzas

In the large bowl of a heavy duty electric mixer (such as a Kitchen Aid), add the warm water. Sprinkle on the yeast and let sit for 5 minutes until the yeast is dissolved. Stir to dissolve completely if needed at the end of 5 minutes.

Attach a mixing paddle to the mixer. Mix in the olive oil, flour, salt and sugar on low speed for about a minute. Remove the mixing paddle and replace with a dough hook. Knead using the mixer and dough hook, on low to medium speed, until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. If you don't have a mixer, you can mix and knead by hand. If the dough seems a little too wet, sprinkle on a bit more flour.

Place ball of dough in a bowl that has been coated lightly with olive oil. Turn the dough around in the bowl so that it gets coated with the oil. Cover with plastic wrap. Let sit in a warm place (75-85°F) until it doubles in size, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours (or several hours longer, a longer rise will improve the flavor). If you don't have a warm spot in the house you can heat the oven to 150 degrees, and then turn off the oven. Let the oven cool till it is just a little warm, then place the bowl of dough in this warmed oven to rise.

At this point, if you want to make ahead, you can freeze the dough in an airtight container for up to two weeks.

Place a pizza stone on a rack in the lower third of your oven. Preheat the oven to 450°F for at least 30 minutes, preferably an hour.

Remove the plastic cover from the dough and punch the dough down so it deflates a bit. Divide the dough in half. Form two round balls of dough. Place each in its own bowl, cover with plastic and let sit for 10 minutes.

Brush the top of the dough with olive oil (to prevent it from getting soggy from the toppings). Use your finger tips to press down and make dents along the surface of the dough to prevent bubbling. Let rest another 5 minutes.

Spoon on the tomato sauce, sprinkle with cheese, and place your desired toppings on the pizza.

Sprinkle some cornmeal on the baking stone in the oven (watch your hands, the oven is hot!). Gently shake the peel to see if the dough will easily slide, if not, gently lift up the edges of the pizza and add a bit more cornmeal. Slide the pizza off of the peel and on to the baking stone in the oven. Bake pizza one at a time until the crust is browned and the cheese is golden, about 10-15 minutes. If you want, toward the end of the cooking time you can sprinkle on a little more cheese.

Makes 2 10-12-inch pizzas.

Rustic vegetarian pizzas with whole wheat crust

We love to do pizza for parties -- especially pizza on the grill. My friend Mary taught me a great method: make the dough a few hours ahead of time, and portion it into single-person pizzas. Roll each portion of dough into a little ball, and place it in an oiled muffin tin. When it's time for cooking, give each person a dough ball to stretch out to the size and shape they want, and set up toppings to mix and match.

Excellent recipe, and very similar to my grandmother's. My girlfriend and I often make this for guests and it's always a hit. The dough is great for bread and foccacia, as well.

For focaccia, we top the dough with a good amount of olive oil and kosher salt. Great for sandwiches. Optionally, you can mix raisins into the dough. Focaccia with raisins often gets more praise than our pizza.


I roll out the pizza into a circle, place it in the pan, and make a nice edging (just fold it over neatly). Then I rub it with a small amount of olive oil and prick it with a fork, then bake the crust by itself for about 5 minutes. I take it out, top it, and then bake it for 8-10 minutes longer.

This looks great, Elise!!! Lydia, I also love pizza on the grill. Easy to do -- just prepare the dough and before putting the toppings on spread olive oil on one side. Place that side on a hot bbq and oil the side that is now facing up. Close the bbq lid and wait for the dough to puff up (a few minutes, it's quick!!) then, flip the dough over and put your toppings on the grilled side, wait a few more minutes and, voila, you have pizza. Wow that made me hungry.

We make pizza at home all the time and just love it! I definitely recommend using bread flour and a pizza stone for the best results. Also, we've had problems using cornmeal on our peel. Sometimes it doesn't keep the pizza from sticking very well, and it usually burns in the hot oven. Instead, we use a sheet of parchment paper. It always slides right off the peel with no problems!

I take string cheese and fold it around the outside edge of the crust, making my own version of stuffed crust pizza. I also add about a teaspoon of Italian seasoning to my dough when it is being made.

We have Tuesday evening Pizza Night every week too, using a recipe from my childhood when we had pizza each week too (it was the one way that I was willing to contribute to the household economy when I was 10). Anyway, garlic powder is the ingredient I add to the basic dough recipe. About 1/4 tsp. for the batch. And use a kitchen aide mixer! We make it in the morning during the breakfast rush, pop it in the fridge in the KA bowl, and take it out about 45-60 minutes before we want to bake. Everyone loves it and now my 6 and 8 year olds have taken over Daddy's cooking night!

If you're already comfortable with the dough, another great variation is to make PizzaBread, basically a sauce-less pizza 'jelly roll' (roll out the dough; sprinkle the whole thing with cheese, spices, onions (I think these are an absolute requirement, but if you don't like onions, you must be the judge) and pepperoni; bake at 350 til done (bread is baked, top is lightly browned); slice about 1 1/2 inch thick pieces; Enjoy! My mom used to make this for me all the time, it's both simple and awesome.

If you want a real nice flavor grow your yeast in your pitch water for 15 to 30 minutes with a pinch of corn sugar before mixing it with your flours. Corn sugar because of its neutral flavor when fermented.

One more tip for assisting in the dough-rising part of the equation. If you have large plastic bags on hand, dump a couple tablespoons of olive oil in one and squish it around until the entire inside of the bag is coated. Then drop the dough in and agitate until dough is covered in oil. Close the bag up and take it to the couch with you, Turn on the t.v., and place the bag on your belly.

Great Website! Great Pizza Recipe! I make pizza once or twice a week. Once you get the recipe down, it doesn't take much time to knock a pizza out. Though this may be a Chicago thing, people seem to like it - I replace about 1/2 cup of the flour with yellow corn meal and it gives the crust a nice texture. Buon Appetito! P.S. I don't live in Chicago.

To Make the Pizza powder:

Mix in a bowl: 2 cups flour, ½ cup whole-wheat flour, 1 tsp. salt, 1 tsp. sugar, and 2 tsp. yeast. Store airtight up to a month.

Make a pizza:

Add ½ cup Pizza Powder to a small bowl.

Mix in ¼ hot water. Top with 1 tsp. oil. Cover with a handful of flour. Knead in bowl for 1 ½ min. Cover and let sit 10 min.

Top with your favorite pizza sauce. Add cheese and your favorite pizza toppings.

First when you make the sauce use diced or crushed tomatoes and drain off the liquid keeping some of it. Put the tomoatoes in the blender with some basil and garlic and pulse till it comes together. Add back enough liquid to get the blender going but be carefull. If the sauce gets going your crust will get soggy.

Now to the grill...preheat with all the burners set to high for 15-30 minutes with the stone on the grill. This isn't particularly good for your grill mind you so don't do it regularly. Figure the pizza oven at Lombardi's in NYC hits 800-1000 degrees so that's your goal and my weber's thermometer goes around past 1,000 and up to 500 again if I let it. Once the grill is going assemble your pizza on a pizza paddle and transfer it to the grill. Try to keep an eye on it as it will cook really fast, open the grill after about 5 minutes and quickly give the pizza a turn and close it back up. After 2-3 minutes more take another peak your pizza is probably ready. Be carefull, may take a pie or two to find the proper time for your grill.

Place a tablespoon of oil in a clean bowl. Put a little oil on your hands to keep the dough from sticking. Form the dough into a ball and place it in the bowl. Turn to coat it with oil. Cover with plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm place for 2 hours, then punch it down. You can make pizza now but it's better if you put it in the fridge overnight.

Other than that, I make the dough now at least 8 hours, and preferably 24 hours in advance. I let it proof in the fridge. By letting the yeast do it's thing for a longer period in a colder environment you get a little deeper flavor, almost a hint of sour dough.

Finally, the last piece clicked in place a week ago when I was watching Iron Chef Mario Batali on The Chew make pizza. When asked about oven temperature he made the comment that he 'sets the phaser to KILL'. I now set mine to 550F and then when it is up to temperature let my pizza stone sit for another 20 minutes or so to make sure it is up to temp. The higher temperature really nails things. The pizza cooks a little quicker and more importantly the outer part of the crust has a nice crunch as your teeth go through while the inner part still retains a little pull, or chewiness.