Homemade Pizza

Homemade pizza is surprisingly easy to make and is a great way to learn how to make yeast dough. The recipe for the dough has few ingredients and it is a good way to experiment with bread making techniques. One thing you should remember about bread baking... people have been doing it for centuries and they have been doing it without all kinds of specialized equipment. Don't be afraid of it!

I got the basic recipe for Pizza Dough from the Washington Post more than 30 years ago when my husband, Patrick, and I were living in Fairfax, Virginia. What caught my eye about the recipe was the use of fresh ground pepper in the dough. I really love pepper and found that it gives this dough some real zip and adds great flavor to the pizza overall.

Over the last 30 years, I have experimented with it a bit. The recipe I use now is the same basic recipe I found in the newspaper with one exception. I add a couple of tablespoons of olive oil to the dough. I also cook the pizza on a preheated pizza tile because it makes the crust nice and crunchy.

My method for deciding how much dough I will make starts with the liquid. For each pizza I will use 3/4 of a cup of warm water [2 pizzas means 1 and 1/2 cups of water, etc]. [Test the temperature of the water the way you would a baby's formula - put a few drops on the inside of your wrist. If you can't feel it, it means it is just right - neither too cold or too warm]. For each 3/4 cup of water, I use 1 and 1/2 tsp of dry yeast and 1/2 tsp sugar.

Proofing the Yeast

Stir the yeast and sugar into the warm water. Here you can see how the yeast has already started to proof [grow].

Adding Flour & the Rest of the Ingredients

For each pizza, add 2 tbsp of olive oil, the yeast mixture, 1 and 1/2 tsp of salt, 1/2 tsp of freshly ground pepper and enough flour to make a sticky dough [about 2 cups]. Turn the mixture out on a flour covered counter and knead it until it is nice and soft and just a tiny bit sticky. Do not knead too much flour into the dough; it will be tough and difficult to flatten into a crust.

Place the dough in a greased bowl, turning it over once. Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and let rise for one to two hours.

Toppings

While you are waiting for the dough to rise, you can prepare the toppings. I usually like sausage, peppers, mushrooms, black olives and onions on my pizza. The guy I usually share it with only likes the sausage and the peppers and sometimes onions. As you can see from the picture above, I have placed mushrooms in a large cast iron frying pan to which I have added about 1 tbsp of olive oil. Cook the mushrooms over medium/high heat stirring often so that they do not burn. If you want nicely browned mushrooms, it is important that you not crowd them in the pan. They should be spread out in a single layer. When they are nicely browned, remove them from the pan and put them in a bowl. Cook sweet Italian sausage until they are done all the way through and slice them into rounds. I do not pre-cook the olives, the onions or the peppers.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Convection ovens should be preheated to 425 degrees.

Once the dough has doubled in size remove it from the bowl and spread it out on a flour covered counter. When you have pulled it out to the right diameter, lightly dust the top with flour [this will keep it from sticking to itself when you fold it over].

When you are ready to assemble the pizza, fold the dough over on itself [this is done to make transferring it to the hot tile easier]. Spread some cornmeal on the pizza tile and transfer the dough pulling it slightly to make it fit the tile. [As soon as the dough touches the hot tile it will start to cook so you have to work fast]. Once the dough is spread on the tile, cover the top with a layer of tomato sauce. My favorite for pizza is Trader Joes Tomato and Basil Marinara sauce to which I have added some fresh oregano. One pizza will use about one half of a jar.

I then sprinkle 8 ounces of grated mozzarella, 4 ounces of grated sharp cheddar and 2 ounces of grated parmesan on the top. As you can see from the picture below, I spread sausage and onions on the entire pizza but only one half gets mushrooms and olives.

Cook the pizza in the convection oven for about 10 minutes, or until the crust has started to brown. A regular oven will take slightly longer.