Thursday, January 21, 2010

Thrifty Thursday: AMAZING pizza dough

Ok...so just the other day I posted a pizza recipe that I got from my cooking classes. However, you have to let the dough rise overnight. I didn't plan ahead for tonight's pizza night so I had to find a different recipe. I am SO glad I did! I found a pizza dough recipe on allrecipes.com. It is seriously amazing!! I had to add more flour as some of the other people commented. I added about a half a cup more flour. Just add flour until the dough has formed into a good consistency. You want it to be a little sticky (just use flour on your hands). Also, I put mine in a warm oven (turn your oven on about 200 degrees for a few minutes and then turn it off) and covered it with a thin dish towel to let it rise. You just want the oven to be warm...not hot. The cost of two pizzas (cheese, garlic, pepperoni for toppings) is around $7.00!!!



Now, for a few things that you must do in order to make this pizza dough taste like pizza at a restaurant. First of all, make sure that the dough triples in size while rising before forming it into a pizza crust. Mine took about an hour but it will all depend on the weather that day. I also double this recipe to make two pizzas since my boys can down some pizza!

The other pretty important thing is to use a pizza stone. I have one large and one medium round stone from pampered chef. I used 3/4ths of the dough for the large and the rest for the medium. I promise that it will make a HUGE difference in the crust of your pizza. There is no need to spray the stone with non-stick spray. First, place your cold stones into the oven. Then, turn your oven on 425 degrees and let it pre-heat. While the stones are in the oven, form your dough into pizza crust shapes on a well floured surface. After the stones have been in the oven for about 20 minutes, remove them from the oven and sprinkle them with ground cornmeal. Ground cornmeal will allow your pizza dough to move freely on the stone. Immediately after pulling the stones from the oven and sprinkling with cornmeal, lift your pizza dough from the counter and move it to the stones. Note: when making two pizzas I pull one stone out of the oven at a time so that the other stone will stay hot while I am situating the dough on the other stone. The heated stone will help the bottom of the pizza to set. Don't worry if, when you lift the dough from the counter, you get a couple of holes in the dough. Once you place it onto the stone, you can reshape it and fill in the holes.

Next, brush the dough with some olive oil and whatever spices you like (italian seasoning or basil). Top with sauce. Then, put whatever toppings on the pizza that you want. For this pizza, I just used freshly grated garlic, large pepperoni slices, and lots of cheese! Bake at 450 for 6-8 minutes.

If you can find this kind of chunky crushed tomatoes with basil, garlic, and oregano then you will have the easiest and most delicious pizza sauce! The only thing I did was add a couple of tablespoons of EVOO. One 28oz can is plenty for two pizzas.

5 comments:

carlyn said...

http://www.facebook.com/carlyn.beth?v=app_2347471856&ref=profile#/note.php?note_id=183152015751


that is very similar to the recipe i have always used. i did a note about it on facebook once and have recently added instructions for freezing on the comments on the bottom. check it out!!

Talia said...

That recipe is actually exactly the same. The only difference is an extra teaspoon on sugar because I actually had to add about 1/2 cup of flour to the dough to make it the right consistency. That is hilarious! I didn't even know you posted a pizza dough recipe on facebook! It is a really good recipe!

I will have to make a bunch sometime and freeze them. I planned on just making a bunch of pizza dough and freezing the dough before it rises. But, it would be nice to have the whole pizza already made in the freezer!! Good thinking! That pear pizza sounds great! I wish Chris like pizza that didn't have red sauce on it : (.

Jessica Lynn said...

i can't wait to make this!

carlyn said...

if you can get a hold of any gluten you should try adding a tablespoon to your recipe. it makes the crust so much better, crispy on bottom and chewy in the middle. you can hold a whole slice up and eat it just like at a restaurant. i know the bread flour has more gluten than normal flour but i don't think it has as much in it as whatever pizza restaurants use. i couldn't believe the difference the extra gluten makes.

Talia said...

Awesome!! Where do you find it? I wonder if I can get it at the same place that I get my bulk yeast. We could hold our pizza up and eat it like normal (I think because of heating up the stones before putting the dough onto it) but I would love it to be even more crisp on the bottom than it is.

 
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