- Details
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Parent Category: Recipes
Cooking Tools:
1. Pizza stone (critical to the pizza crust texture)
2. Pizza peel (looks like a wooden pan, important in transferring the
pizza to the oven
3. Thermometer (to measure water temperature)
4. Pizza cutter
Stage 1:
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon olive oil
2/3 cups warm water (110°F to 115°F)
1 teaspoon sugar
5/8 teaspoon active dry yeast
Stage 2:
flour
cornmeal
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 tablespoons pizza sauce
2/3 lb mozzarella cheese
1/4 lb Romano and Parmesan cheese
chopped basil
crushed red pepper
garlic powder
onion powder
oregano
Stage 1:
1. Mix the warm water and sugar in a small bowl until blended together.
2. Add the yeast and mix well. Then wait until the top becomes foamy
(about 5-10 minutes).
3. In the meantime mix the flour, salt and olive oil in large bowl.
4. Once yeast/water mixture is ready, add it to the flour mixture and
791
stir. Continue to mix until you get a doughy mass that is smooth and
elastic. If it is still sticky, add some extra flour to it (It's okay
if dough is slightly sticky).
5. Form the dough mass into a ball and place in an oiled bowl (you can
use oil or a cooking spray). Roll the ball in the bowl so that it is
covered in oil. Cover the bowl in plastic wrap and place in a warm
place; let rise for at least an hour. (I run my clothes dryer for a
minute then stop it and put the bowl inside).
6. If you are planning on cooking the pizza immediately, preheat the
oven to 475°F and place the pizza stone inside the oven on the lowest
rack. The stone should be heated in the oven for around an hour before
placing the pizza. This way, your dough and your pizza stone will be
ready around the same time.
Stage 2:
1. Place dough ball on a flat (clean) floured surface.
2. Punch it down and work into a circular disc. At this point the
dough should be smooth and elastic and easy to work with. If not, add
a pinch full of flour and rub it on top of the dough.
3. Use your hands to spread out the dough (Don't use a rolling pin).
You should work from the center and spread outwards (this ensures the
center dough is thinner and keeps a thicker crust). You can also
stretch the dough out by holding it on top of both fists and spreading
them apart slowly.
Occasionally, flip the dough over and sprinkle a little flour on to
make sure dough is not sticky. Continue to work dough until you have
circular disc about 12"-14" in diameter.
4. Be sure when you have completed stretching out the dough that there
are no parts of the dough that are sticky, as this will make
transferring the pizza to the oven difficult.
Once ready, transfer dough to a pizza peel. The peel should be lightly
covered in flour and corn meal (this will help keep the pizza from
sticking to the peel).
5. Brush the pizza crust with olive oil. Then top with pizza sauce and
cheeses.
6. Now add the spices over the cheese. Just add enough to lightly coat
the surface with a single pass. You can add any toppings that you
prefer to the pizza.
7. The pizza is now ready to be cooked. If you had your oven prepared
with the pizza stone at 475°F for an hour, you are ready to go.
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Using the pizza peel, slide the pizza on top of the stone. This can be
tricky. Have the peel inside the oven at about a 20 degree angle. Then
push the peel forward and jerk backwards. The pizza should slide right
in like this.
8. Cook for 14 minutes and then remove only the pizza (use a pair of
spatulas to remove the pizza). Let the stone remain in the oven and
allow it to cool inside the oven.
9. Let the pizza cool for about 7 minutes before serving. Use a pizza
cutter and make 8 slices.
