If you know me well, you'll know that one of my favorite things to bake from scratch is pizza. There is nothing like the smell of yeast rising in your house. Mmmmmm, I can just smell the aroma now :-) So for my friends who would like to venture into homemade pizza, this little (ok, extremely long) recipe/tutorial is for YOU! Once you do it, you'll be hooked, I promise!
The Best Homemade Pizza Ever
INGREDIENTS:
3 1/2 cups of flour plus extra for rolling out (all-purpose or a combo of all-purpose/whole wheat)
1 cup warm water (95-115 degrees)
1 tbsp yeast
1 tbsp sugar
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
1 15 oz. can of pizza sauce (I like Don Pepino)
4 cups part-skim shredded mozzarella
grated parmesan cheese to taste
dried parsley flakes for garnish
STEPS:
Ok, you'll start by proofing your yeast. Pour the 1 cup warm water into a bowl (I used a 2-cup Pampered Chef measuring cup). Stir the 1 tbsp sugar into the water until dissolved. Add the 1 tbsp yeast and stir until mixed into water. (If you are using some whole wheat flour for your dough, you'll want to add more yeast - I use a rounded 1 tbsp.) It's ok if you still have a few clumps but it should be pretty mixed in. As a total sidebar - you can pick up a ridiculously large pack of yeast at BJ's (I'm assuming Costco has this too) for a *very* low price. It is a much better price by FAR over the little packets you get in the grocery store and it lasts forever - just make sure to store it in an air-tight container in the refrigerator.
While the yeast proofs (i.e., sits there and grows), start working on the rest of your dough. Mix 3 1/2 cups of flour and salt together in a food processor. You could also add any extras at this point - garlic, Italian seasoning, etc.
If you would like to make a whole wheat dough like I do, I suggest using a combination of white/wheat flour. An all-wheat flour dough really doesn't taste that great and it's dense and very dry. I use 2 cups white flour, 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour. I love whole wheat everything but trust me - making a 100% whole wheat dough doesn't taste that great.
Next, add the 1/4 extra-virgin olive oil in the food processor.
Mix until the olive oil is well blended into the flour.
The flour should look a little coarse and mealy, like this:
By the time you have finished this, your yeast should be done proofing - this took me a long time to perfect but I am now a yeast-proofing pro :-) Do you see how the yeast has grown and there is a new layer sitting on top of the water? This indicates that your yeast has proofed and you can continue. If your water/yeast/sugar combo does not look like this, something went wrong. Make sure your water was not too hot or too cold - you'll get used to the feel of the correct temperature after awhile and won't need to measure it. Also, make sure the sugar is dissolved in the water - it acts as a catalyst to help the yeast grow.
Next, slowly pour the yeasty water into the food processor and mix with the flour. I typically end up taking the top off the processor to help the dough along several times - sometimes it just gets stuck and needs to get moved around. Your dough should get to a point where it is moving as one big ball around the food processor. If you can't get the dough to clump together like this, add a little more warm water - do this in very small increments so you don't overdue it. (It's highly likely that you will need to add a bit more water if you are using whole wheat flour.) If you do happen to add too much water, just add more flour into the dough to compensate - again, a little at a time. Your dough should be a somewhat sticky consistency, but not so much that it's actually sticking to your hands and not coming off.
When you have the dough to a consistency that you like, pull it out of the processor and kneed it a few times to make sure everything is mixed well. Next, put the dough into a GREASED bowl that's big enough to allow for expansion. (I use extra-virgin olive oil to grease the bowl.) Now it's time for the dough to rise!
I actually have a proofing setting on my oven - all I need to do is set it to "proof" and put the bowl into the oven with a DAMP towel covering it like in the picture below (you obviously need to close the oven door when you are proofing - I left it open for this picture). If you do not have this setting on your oven, there is a simple solution. Fill a tea kettle with water and bring it to a boil on the stovetop. Take the top off of the tea kettle spout and put the tea pot into the oven along with the dough. This will create a wet warm-ish environment perfect for the yeast to grow. Let the dough proof for 45-60 minutes - set a timer and go do something else (or take a nap?)!
When it's finished, the dough should have about doubled in size:
Next comes the fun part! Punch the dough down and roll it out onto a floured surface. I use my counter and sprinkle just a tiny bit of flour onto it so the dough won't stick. Roll the dough as flat as you possibly can with your rolling pin - it will rise back up when baking, so you want to start with a flatly-rolled out dough. I'm sorry I don't have pictures of this step - I needed both hands to roll! Next, carefully place the dough onto a pizza stone. I allow a few inches of dough to hang off the pizza stone all the way around - I cut off any extra after that to make cinnamon sticks (Angel loves them!).
I create a crust by folding up the extra couple of inches all the way around the dough. You'll have to fold and pinch the dough to get it to stay put.
Now it's time for the sauce!
Angel helped here:
Spread the sauce out all the way up to the crust. I use the whole can, but do what works best for you. I personally love the Don Pepino sauce (even after growing up on Ragu Pizza Quick!).
Add the cheese next. We like extra-cheesy pizza, so I use all 4 cups of cheese. Not everyone likes this much cheese, so go with what you like best. I sprinkle a bit of parmesan cheese for the added flavor and to fill in the holes. Next sprinkle some parsley flakes over the cheese for garnish - I like adding the green color to the pizza.
It's time to bake! Baking time is variable, but start with 25 minutes at 350 degrees and keep the pizza in until the cheese is bubbly. You can see on my oven that it's an hour after I put the dough into proof - for homemade pizza from scratch, it really isn't that time consuming AND I took pictures the whole time! :-)
Once the pizza is finished, let it stand for 5-10 minutes so the cheese doesn't run when you cut it.
Last step - ENJOY! If Lovebug is willing to eat homemade whole wheat pizza, you know it's good ... he doesn't eat anything!
I hope this helps! We love homemade pizza from scratch and it's so fun to do! The yeast can get expensive but if you buy it in bulk, the price is nominal. The pizza ends up being cheaper than delivery AND it's much better for you if you go the whole wheat route. And even if you don't make it with whole wheat, it's really fun for kids to make, so just do it!
Some of these pictures aren't the best technically or artistically - I didn't realize how difficult food photography was let alone trying to take pictures in the process of cooking! :-)
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