Ok, so this is my first blog on my Korner. What better way to kick off my first blogging experience than by sharing my tried and true pizza dough recipe. Now, you must understand that this is not only a pizza dough recipe, but a way of life. You are either on the train or off the train. Let's hope you make the wise decision... Today I made the most perfect pizza ever. The hot fumes were coming off the pizza just as Cherie was going to the gym. She took a bite and almost decided to stay home. I suppose some days you miss the train. Don’t worry Cherie, there will be plenty of leftovers since I made 2 pizzas!
The dough
Ingredients appear in mixing order:
4 cups bread flour.
1 1/2 tsp yeast
***MIX to homogenize yeast*** (yeah that’s right, I said homogenize)
1 1/2 cups cold water
***make it look like lumpy pancake batter***
1 ½ tsp salt
2 tbsp Olive oil
Knead in mixer or whatever for a few minutes or until you’re tired.
Cover and let sit for a while until it rises.
Refrigerate overnight. (oh and please, don’t put it in another clean bowl which is “oiled”. I don’t know who made that up, but they need their head checked)
The bake
Split dough in two.
Flatten out a bit with a rolling pin.
(oh yeah, turn on your oven to as hot as it goes. Mine goes to 550˚F neener neener!)
Let dough sit and warm up. Otherwise when you try to HAND TOSS it thin, it will shrink back before you can say Pizza Pizza! You weaklings can use a rolling pin if you want. I can feel my muscles stretch my shirt while I toss my dough.
Why hand toss? Because it keeps it thin in the middle, and thick toward the outside. (where the crust is, duh!)
Shape dough to desired shape (hopefully round) and let sit a bit to rise just a bit more. (sometimes I skip this step)
Put sauce on, but not too thick. The sauce is supposed to be a tad salty and oregano-ey. That way, your crust can still cook instead of trying to burn off water)
Put toppings on! Remember, less is more. The more toppings you have the less your crust will cook.
Throw it in the oven. Mine cooks in about 10 minutes. Just before the last 3 minutes I take it out and butter the crust with a mix of melted butter and garlic salt. (you know, the garlic salt that has calcium silicates that will probably harm your body someday?)
A word on Sauce:
Pizza sauce needs to be stronger than spaghetti sauce. I always wondered why my pizza was bland. This is what I do, and mind, it is all to taste. (no real recipes here!)
8 oz can of tomato sauce
1 tsp garlic salt
1 -2 tablespoons of (oregano + basil)
1 – 2 tblsp olive oil. (I sometimes skip this)
A word on PANS:
Use any pizza pan you like. I have never used a stone, but my pizza is great on a regular thin aluminum pan, or a pan with perforated holes in it. It DON’T MATTER! Pizza Pizza! I will never use a double-thick steel cookie sheet. They burn my cookies, and they’ll burn your pizza, Foa Shua!
The Result (after 6 weeks, and 14 pizzas)
Oh baby Pizza Porn!
This pizza is soft and chewy, but also has a slight crispiness to it.
1 ½ tsp salt
2 tbsp Olive oil
Knead in mixer or whatever for a few minutes or until you’re tired.
Cover and let sit for a while until it rises.
Refrigerate overnight. (oh and please, don’t put it in another clean bowl which is “oiled”. I don’t know who made that up, but they need their head checked)
The bake
Split dough in two.
Flatten out a bit with a rolling pin.
(oh yeah, turn on your oven to as hot as it goes. Mine goes to 550˚F neener neener!)
Let dough sit and warm up. Otherwise when you try to HAND TOSS it thin, it will shrink back before you can say Pizza Pizza! You weaklings can use a rolling pin if you want. I can feel my muscles stretch my shirt while I toss my dough.
Why hand toss? Because it keeps it thin in the middle, and thick toward the outside. (where the crust is, duh!)
Shape dough to desired shape (hopefully round) and let sit a bit to rise just a bit more. (sometimes I skip this step)
Put sauce on, but not too thick. The sauce is supposed to be a tad salty and oregano-ey. That way, your crust can still cook instead of trying to burn off water)
Put toppings on! Remember, less is more. The more toppings you have the less your crust will cook.
Throw it in the oven. Mine cooks in about 10 minutes. Just before the last 3 minutes I take it out and butter the crust with a mix of melted butter and garlic salt. (you know, the garlic salt that has calcium silicates that will probably harm your body someday?)
A word on Sauce:
Pizza sauce needs to be stronger than spaghetti sauce. I always wondered why my pizza was bland. This is what I do, and mind, it is all to taste. (no real recipes here!)
8 oz can of tomato sauce
1 tsp garlic salt
1 -2 tablespoons of (oregano + basil)
1 – 2 tblsp olive oil. (I sometimes skip this)
A word on PANS:
Use any pizza pan you like. I have never used a stone, but my pizza is great on a regular thin aluminum pan, or a pan with perforated holes in it. It DON’T MATTER! Pizza Pizza! I will never use a double-thick steel cookie sheet. They burn my cookies, and they’ll burn your pizza, Foa Shua!
The Result (after 6 weeks, and 14 pizzas)
