The art of being of great cook is sometimes being able to improvise with what you have on hand. It pays to be resourceful with your ingredients. Think a few days, weeks, or even months ahead when planning your dinners and it will pay off in a big way.
Using what we had in our fridge, I decided to spend a couple hours in the kitchen setting us up for tasty pizza today and for the next few pizza dinners. We had some leftover homemade lasagna meat sauce in the fridge, and decided to use that as my sauce.
It's a chunkier than what I normally would consider a pizza sauce, but it has great flavor and will do the job today. Speaking of setting up, that's one tip I can pass on to the cooks at home. Set up your work area with everything you need before you start preparing your dish. This will ensure you have everything within reach and you won't forget to add something to your recipe. Here's what my station looked like before I started making dough:
When you can, it also helps to measure out your ingredients before adding them all together. Since I was making a triple batch of dough, I measured my yeast, salt, sugar, olive oil, and water before starting. I don't measure my flour out beforehand for a reason - sometimes it takes more or less flour to do the job. More on that later.
I use active dry yeast, which I buy in a jar or in a bulk package at the store. Make sure your water is between 105 and 110 degrees Fahrenheit to get the optimal results for your pizza dough, and let your yeast sit in the water for 10 to 12 minutes. I also put the sugar in with the yeast at this stage, which gives the yeast a nice boost. Here's what you should see after 10 to 12 minutes have passed:
The yeast creates a bubbly, foamy on the surface of the water and it starts to smell a little like beer. I use a KitchenAid with the dough hook attachment, which does a great job at making the dough. I put half of the amount of flour, the salt, and oil in at this time. If you're making the dough by hand, you might want to put in a cup or a half cup of flour at a time to make it easier.
The standard recipe, which is already a double batch, that I use for my dough usually takes 8 cups of flour --- use about 4 cups for a single batch (makes one cookie sheet sized pizza, or two 14-inch round pizzas). When you get to 3 cups for the single batch, add a quarter of a cup of flour at a time to get it just right. If your dough looks like the video below, add more flour:
Your dough is ready when it easily pulls away from the sides, like in the video below:
Rub a large bowl with some olive oil and put a little bit of flour on your hands and take the dough out of the mixing bowl. Cover the bowl with a towel and let it proof for at least one hour. Here's what it will look like when it is ready to use:
Lightly flour your hands and punch the dough down. I prefer to stretch the dough by hand, but you can also roll it out with a rolling pin - just be sure to lightly flour the surface you are rolling the dough on.
For tonight's pizza, I decided to use a cookie sheet and a round, 14-inch pizza pan that I picked up from
Sur la Table. These are the best pans and cookie sheets - I always buy them at Sur la Table. Please click the
Sur la Table logo near the top right of the page for free shipping! My double batch of dough was much more than needed, so I decided I would try for a thicker, "fluffier" type of crust on the cookie sheet pizza. Make sure your cookie sheet and/or pizza pan are lightly coated with some olive oil and place your stretched or rolled out dough onto the pans.
Here's another pizza tip - if your dough is being stubborn and tough to work with, let it sit for 5 to 10 minutes and go back to it.
Now for the sauce. I used the leftover sauce on both pizzas. I put only a thin amount on the round pizza, which was a much thinner crust. I heaped the sauce onto the thicker cookie sheet pizza.
I decided on using just cheese on the rectangular cookie sheet pizza. However, on the round pizza I brought a stick of my homemade, uncured pepperoni out of the freezer. The pepperoni will be the subject of its own article at a later date. Here's what the succulent uncured pepperoni looks like:
Okay, so the pizzas are now topped and ready for the oven. I can't stress this next part enough - make your oven as hot as it can go. This is going to give you the best results on your pizza. I preheated my oven to 550 degrees and planned on the round pizza taking about 10 to 12 minutes and the more robust cookie sheet pizza taking about 20.
Pizzas ready to go in the oven
When you're making a couple pizzas at the same time in your oven at home, it is important to shift the pizzas once or twice during baking. This will ensure you get even baking and so that your crust is finished at the same time your cheese is perfectly melted on the top.
The finished products:
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| Crispy thin crust. Has a little chew in the middle. |
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Pillowy, chewy thick crust.
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Want to try making the standard dough recipe at home? Here's what you'll need:
Single Batch of Pizza Dough
4 cups of bread flour
1 1/2 cups of water (must be 105 to 110 degrees)
2 1/4 teaspoons of active dry yeast, or 1 package of active dry yeast
1 1/8 teaspoons of sugar
2 1/4 tablespoons of olive oil
2 1/4 teaspoons of sea salt (not table salt or iodized salt)
Questions about any of my methods or ingredients? Please feel free to contact me.
