Pizza From Scratch

    We would rarely eat pizza since we rarely eat out. Not being a big fan of frozen pizza, we just never really gave it much thought. One night we decided to make our own. She does the dough and I prepare the toppings and assemble the pizza. This is what happened….

    After some experimenting and lots of trial and error we came up with a very good pizza and now we eat it almost traditionally every Thursday night!

At times we will do other flavors like pineapple and ham etc.

    Here is the one we make most.

Pizza crust

Basically you just use the directions on the pizza crust yeast then tweak it to your liking. This is enough for a medium pizza (8 slices)

1 cup unbleached flour (up to 2.5 cups flour)

¾ tsp salt

1 ½ tsp sugar

1 package pizza yeast

3 table oil

1 tsp garlic powder

2/3 cup water

In a mixing bowl add 1 cup [to start] flour, salt, sugar, and yeast then whisk to blend.

Heat 2/3 cup water for 30 seconds in the microwave- temp of water should be between 110-120 degrees to activate the yeast.

Then add water and oil to flour mixture

Using a plastic spatula mix until smooth

Mix in enough remaining flour to form a soft dough

Usually ½ to ¾ cup flour- requirement changes based on humidity, age of flour, elevation. You will have to experiment to see what works for you.

    Add ½ cup flour to a stand mixer and mix it with a dough hook for at least four minutes. Then add additional flour, in 2 tablespoon increments, until dough holds together in a ball but is still sticky about 8 minutes total. If you do not have a stand mixer you will have to mix the ingredients and kneed it by hand.

Once the dough is at the right consistency cover the bowl and let it rise for 30 minutes to 1 hour.

The dough will be airy and quite sticky- scrape the flour from the bowl onto a floured surface, roll or flatten and spread by hand into a 12-inch disk.

    We use a rolling pin and pizza mat from Pampered Chef and they work very well for this.

    Once you are comfortable with making the dough you can experiment with is some. We use flavored oils such as garlic and rosemary.

Oil the pizza pan and place the dough on the pan and stretch it gently as needed to reach the outside edge. We use a perforated non stick pan sprayed with PAM spray oil. We have rubbed on soft butter instead. You can use a regular pan or even a pizza stone. You may have to adjust cook times accordingly.

Toppings and Sauce

    We use to make our own sauce but found a canned sauce we like just as well. This saves a bunch of work and time.  We use Dei Frateli All Natural.

    That being said, you do not need much. We use about 3-4 oz spread evenly over the entire pizza excluding the edge (crust). Less is more in this case.

At this point you just go with what you like. You can sprinkle additional spice on the sauce or go straight to the toppings. How you top your pizza and the cuts you use for your vegetables will be up to you and your family’s preferences.

We try to cut everything a little early and lay it out on paper towels to remove some of the moisture. Here is what we use and in order of application:

Sauce

Garlic powder

Italian seasoning (comes in a grinder set at med grind)

2 and ½ Links of Johnsonville Mild or Sweet sausage links cooked/browned and drained

Baby Portobello mushrooms - Sliced 

Onion sliced in thin rings

Diced red bell pepper (sometimes yellow or green) (we have done thin rings)

    I do half for me and half for her so at this point I will add green and black olives to my side. At times we will use mild banana pepper rings and or jalapenos. On rare occasions anchovies. Be sure and mark the boundaries of the different toppings! I use the pan handles as a guide, you could use toothpicks. Also, be cautious of hot toppings as the juices may escape to areas of the pizza you do not want hot!

Shredded Mozzarella and fresh Parmesan cheese

Pepperoni slices – we use to put these on before the cheese but have found we like it better on top.

   This pizza was from the days of putting pepperoni on before the cheese… still looks good! (Before baking)

Here’s one with light cheese and it has extra toppings on half. (Before baking)

Cooking

    Once all of your toppings are on it, place it in the oven and set a timer for 20 minutes. You may do more or less based on the amount of toppings and you preference of brownness.

Oven 425 (test oven temp with thermometer)

Move rack up to top shelf

Bake 20 minutes

    Salad is the only side we have served with this, maybe you can come up with something better.. Unless you are a soda fan, beer and red wine go well with this.

    Some notes: We place the remaining sauce in a container and refrigerate. The same goes for the other half block of mozzarella, it gets a storage bag. We freeze the other half of the sausage in a quart freezer bag. It easily thaws for the next pizza when placed in hot water.

    Also if your toppings are right out of the fridge we like to get them to room temperature before baking the pizza. Cold into hot = condensation = wet soggy pizza.