If you haven’t noticed I’ve been on a wee-bit of a homemade kick recently.
(Thanks Captain Obvious.)
I’ve homemade bread, pasta, pitas (and cookies, and lasagna noodles, and more bread), diy-ed a ton of stuff around the home, etc. Call it nearing-30 nesting, call it excitement to have a home, call it extra time due to working from said home (who wouldn’t rather bake bread than commute to the office?) but I’ve been on a roll.
My most recent homemade thing? Delicious pizza. (Delicious pizza dough, really, is what I’m referring to).
Like my making of homemade bread, my making of pizza dough was inspired by my friend Graham. Graham is also on a bit of a homemade kick. I didn’t do much googling in this case, and used the vera pizza dough recipe that Graham suggested (from the Tasty Spot), it uses only flour, water, yeast and salt. I love me some simple recipes.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t get myself a pizza stone* in time so the middles were a tad soggy. That didn’t stop the hubs from proclaiming it was the best pizza he’d ever had.
Note on pizza stones: apparently, these can be terribly expensive at specialty stores, and really it’s just a bit of stone. Word on the street is you can pick something up at Home Depot (but be sure not to get a glazed ceramic tile, as the glaze contains lead). Several Home Depots have stopped carrying unglazed tiles, which was the predicament we found ourselves in. We’ve also heard that sometimes Safeway or Home Outfitters has them for about $10. Let me know what you use!
The first pizza was a tomato sauce, shallots, pepperoni, green pepper and mushroom pizza with delicious mozzarella and a bit of garlic (because garlic makes everything extra delicious).
The second pizza had a pesto base, loads of red onions, mushrooms, a bit of leftover green pepper, tomato, goat cheese and a bit of mozzarella. When it finished baking, I topped it with fresh basil (because fresh basil makes most things extra delicious).
These pizzas were scarfed down by the hubs, our friend Ian, and myself and followed up with a trip to Dairy Queen for blizzards. Saturday nights don’t get much better than that, I tell you!
VERA PIZZA NAPOLETANO DOUGH
From The Tasty Spot
Ingredients:
- 3 cups bread flour
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1 3/4 cups water
- 2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon active dry yeast (I used instant and the dough was fine.)
Directions
- In a bowl of an electric stand mixer, combine the flours together.
- Add the water and mix with a wooden spoon until a dough begins to form.
- Autolyse process: let the dough rest for 20 minutes.
- Add the salt and yeast.
- On the “2″ setting of the stand mixer, mix the dough for 5 minutes with a dough hook.
- The dough should be really wet at this point. Pour the dough onto a floured workspace. Use a wooden spoon to scrape all the dough out of the bowl, if necessary.
- Lightly knead the dough for a few seconds.
- Take the sides of the dough, pull to the middle, and pinch together.
- Take the opposite sides of the dough, pull to the middle, and pinch together.
- Lightly oil a large bowl and place the dough into the bowl setting the seam side down.
- Cover the bowl and let dough rise for 2 hours. The dough should double in size.
- Take the dough out of the bowl and place onto a floured workspace. Cut the dough into three or four individual pieces.
- Keyhole method: create a “keyhole” with your thumb and pointer finger. Push the dough through the hole (see pictures above) and once all the dough is pushed through, pinch the top together. Repeat for all the pieces of dough.
- Lightly oil individual plastic containers and place each dough into its own container. Cover the containers with the lids. Ed: If you are planning on freezing some of the dough, freeze those containers for up to 1 (or 3) month(s), depending on who you ask.
- Place the container in the fridge for overnight. One hour before rolling out, take the dough out and let rest. The dough does not have to placed in the fridge overnight, but let the dough rest for one hour before rolling out. Ed: I did the latter and it worked perfectly.
To avoid the soggy middle problem without getting a pizza stone, try cooking the dough halfway and then adding the sauce and cheese. The toppings still cook and you get a crisper bottom.
Awesome suggestion Steph! I’m totally trying this next time!