We had some excellent pizza last night. My sister has been asking me for my recipe and technique, so here goes. It's adapted from several sources: Fine Cooking Magazine, Alton Brown's "Good Eats" on FoodTV and Cookwise by Shirley Corriher.
1 pkg (2 1/4 tsp) active-dry yeast (I use instant yeast-not quick rising-that I get from Sam's Club)
1 1/2 C very warm (110 degrees) water
4 C bread flour (but you can use All-Purpose flour if you want)
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
2 TBS Olive Oil
A note about the yeast. If you use "instant" yeast you don't have to dissolve it first. But the only place I've found it is Sam's Club, where you end up getting a year's supply. I freeze most of it and then just dip some into a small tupperware container to keep in the fridge for day-to-day use. If you don't want to use instant yeast, just use regular yeast. But I'd let it "proof" for a minute in the warm water then.
Step 1: throw the yeast, 2 cups of the flour and the water into your mixer bowl. Mix with your regular beater until combined into a soupy mess. Now, this is if you have a stand mixture with one of those round, loopy kind of beaters. If you don't have one of those, then mix this up by hand until well-combined. This is your "sponge".
Step 2: Leave it sit for a while. This period can last anywhere from 15 minutes to 2 or 3 hours. The longer you let the sponge sit, the finer the texture of the crust bread will be.
Step 3: Put on your dough hook and add in the last 2 cups of flour, the salt and the olive oil. Let it knead or 8-10 minutes. If you are using a mixer, don't go higher than about level 2 in speed. It can be hard on the mixer. If you don't have a mixer, then you are doing this step by hand. Mix it up with your hands real well and then knead on a comfortably-low surface for 10 minutes or until the dough is smooth and a bit sticky.
Step 4: Put the dough in a bowl with a bit of olive oil in the bottom and turn it once to coat the dough ball. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and a kitchen towel. Let it rise until doubled...about 45 minutes.
**If you want to have pizza right away...like... you didn't start this dough at 2 in the afternoon...that's fine. Just skip the "sponge" step. Mix up half the flour, water and yeast until smooth and soupy, add the remaining flour, salt and olive oil and knead. Let rise. You can do this at 5 to start making pizza by 6 and the first one will be done by about 6:15.
***By the same token, let's say you did all this and then suddenly got a better offer...like dinner at the neighbor's house, or your husband wants to finally take you to that Indian restaurant you love. No problem. Just divide the dough into quarters (or if it's risen already, punch it down and then divide into quarters) shape each into a nice little ball, wrap in plastic wrap and then put in a zip-top bag. Toss in the freezer. When you're ready to use them, take them out and let thaw to room temp...take them out at breakfast for suppertime.
Okay...so here's how we COOK THE PIZZAS:
I have put 4 unglazed quarry tiles on the very bottom rack of my oven. They stay there all the time. They help keep the oven a nice even temperature and they are great for pizza and bread.
1. Heat the oven NASA-hot...500 degrees. If your oven goes to 550...do that. When the oven tells you it's at the temp, wait until 10 or 15 minutes. It's lying anyway and it really WILL be that hot in another 10 or 15.
2. Don't punch down the dough. Just turn it out onto your floured counter. Divide your dough into 4 nice, even parts. Cut it or something, just try not to deflate it too much. Lightly turn each ball around with the palms of your hands on the sides until they are nice and round. Cover them back up and let them rest for a bit...like 10 minutes.
3. Assemble toppings. Cut up your onions, saute your sausage, grate your cheese...whatever.
4. Put some cornmeal on a pizza peel. If you don't have a peel, use the back of a cookie sheet. You are going to build your pizza on here and slide it off onto the stones in your oven. Don't have the stones? Then just build the pizzas on the right side of the cookie sheet and put the pan in the oven. But really...buy the quarry tiles at Lowe's or Home Despot or Menards for about 20 cents each. And the pizza peel at Bed Bath and Beyond or Marshall Field's for about $20.
Okay...so take your first ball of dough lightly in your hand and put it on the flour counter in front of you. Poke it flat with your finger tips. It should look crater-y...like the moon. The objective is to leave some air in the dough. You can flatten it out with the heel of your hand, but you'll push all the air out and your pizza crust will be fine, but just not light and airy inside.
Take your crater-y circle of dough and pick up and just sort of turn it around and around on your fingertips and knuckles. Let gravity stretch it out. The first few you do are going to be a bit hard until you get the knack. The more you handle the dough, the tougher your crust is going to be. It will still be edible, just tougher.
Once you get your circle the thickness and diameter you want (mine are usually around 10-12 inches in diameter), put it on the peel or cookie sheet.
Brush a little olive oil on the dough and dress the pizza. I tend to use Barilla jarred Marinara for the sauce. I can, and have often, made my own sauce, but really Barilla is good eats! Then some mozzarella and whatever toppings the kids like. They each tell me what they want on their pizza. Each person gets one pizza. Sometimes they dress them themselves. They don't really like stretching the dough, so I do it and call them to dress it.
Slide that pizza off the peel or cookie sheet right onto those quarry tile. The sliding is a bit of an art. If you've got cornmeal on there, you should get a good slide. Put the peel or cookie sheet edge near the back of the oven. Jerk it a bit to get the pizza to slide and then once you get the edge of the dough onto the surface of the tile, you can just evenly pull the peel or sheet out. After you mess up one or two, you'll get the hang of it. You'll hear a sizzle. That's a GOOD THING! Cook about 7 or 8 minutes. While it's cooking, start dressing the next pizza. Usually I have a new one on the peel ready to go in when the first one comes out. Since the peel has stuff on it then, I just use a spatula to push the cooked pizza off the stones onto my cutting board.
You should end up with a crunchy crust. And if you didn't push all the air out, you'll have those cool little air pockets scattered throughout.
Now...we have pizza about once a week. It's actually one of my quicker meals to prepare, since my handy dandy Kitchenaid mixer does all the kneading and stuff. But last night's pizza was superior because I tried some new ideas with toppings. So here are some topping ideas.
Kids only like cheese, sausage and pepperoni. Just stick with that for them.
But for adults, here are three favorites:
Pizza 1. Saute some greens (spinach or kale or collards or mustard) in a small amount of butter and olive oil with some garlic. Spread that on the pizza and add some sun-dried tomatoes (the ones packed in oil), onion, parmesan cheese or maybe some feta or goat cheese.
Pizza 2. Spread basil pesto over the crust. Put some shredded leftover chicken all around and a bit of onion. Maybe some sun-dried tomatoes (the ones packed in oil) Sprinkle parmesan.
Pizza 3. Spread a thin layer of barbeque sauce over the crust. Put around some shredded leftover chicken, a bit of onion, and then drizzle a bit more barbeque sauce. No cheese.
That's it!
8:05:53 AM 
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