My kids will generally eat pizza and since I dislike making a dinner that they both refuse to eat, we have this on pretty regular rotation. Besides - pizza sauce is tooooootally a veggie - right???
Dough Ingredients
- 3 1/2 to 4 cups bread flour (can also use all-purpose or a mix of whole wheat - we do a mix of wheat and bread flours unless we are out of bread flour)
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 envelope instant dry yeast (or 2.5t from the big jar)
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt (can use less, or use garlic salt for extra YUM - you can also add garlic powder if you like)
- 1 1/2 cups water, 110 degrees F
- 2 tablespoons olive oil, plus 2 teaspoons
Other Ingredients
- Sauce - you can totally make this yourself, but we typically use a jar of Trader Joe's. One jar will last through 2 pizza nights
- Cheese
- Toppings - my cost saving tip here is to hit up the salad bar at Whole Foods you can buy just enough veggies for your pizza
- Random stuff from your fridge (is it about to expire??? THROW IT ON YOUR PIZZA)
Dough Instructions
Combine the bread flour, sugar, yeast and kosher salt in the bowl of a stand mixer and combine. While the mixer is running, add the water and 2 tablespoons of the oil and beat until the dough forms into a ball. If the dough is sticky, add additional flour, 1 tablespoon at a time, until the dough comes together in a solid ball. If the dough is too dry, add additional water, 1 tablespoon at a time. Scrape the dough onto a lightly floured surface and gently knead into a smooth, firm ball. (If you don't have a stand mixer, just mix in a bowl with a wooden spoon and knead by hand)
Grease a large bowl with the remaining 2 teaspoons olive oil, add the dough, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and put it in a warm area to let it double in size, about 1 hour. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and divide it into 2 equal pieces. Cover each with a clean kitchen towel or plastic wrap and let them rest for 10 minutes.
Making the dough yourself is super cheap, here are a couple of alternatives if you have a busy schedule:
- Trader Joe's refrigerated pizza dough (it's like $1.25 for one crust)
- Prep the dough in the morning (up to the point where you let it rise) and leave it in the fridge while you are out and about for the day. Take it out and let it sit for about 20 minutes when you get home while you prep the toppings, then use it to make pizzas.
- We typically make this on a day that one of us is working from home so we can take a quick break to start the dough about an hour before the other one gets home with the kids
The dough recipe will make enough for TWO pizzas (read that as "easy leftovers for lunch the next day"). Typically we let everyone top their own pizza. When the dough is ready to be used, we divide it in half. One half gets turned into a serviceable pizza that everyone will eat (cheese, pepperoni, maybe a veggie or two). From the other half, everyone gets a chunk to roll out and top as they choose. The kids have fun playing with the dough and while they are smearing flour over every surface in my kitchen, I take the time to pop a vegetable on the stove (or let's be real, in the microwave). While all this is going on I preheat the oven to 425.
Once all the pizzas are ready we pop them in. Cooking time will depend on how thin you rolled your crust, how crispy you like it and if you let your oven preheat all the way (speaking from experience here). If you like SUPER crispy crust, you might want to pre-bake a little before topping, but I am too lazy to do this. You'll want to keep an eye on the pizzas because they don't take that long. I'd check at 10 minutes and then fairly frequently after that until they are the way you like them.
DIFFICULTY LEVEL: This is pretty easy although I always feel like yeast adds a layer of unpredictability if you haven't used it much before.
TIME to MAKE: This takes a long time if you count the rising time of the dough, however it all comes together quickly once the dough is ready to go and the baking time is minimal so I still think it works great for a week night.
 |
| This is actually delivery pizza. |
The dough recipe is adapted from the Food Network: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/bobby-flay/pizza-dough-recipe.html
No comments:
Post a Comment