Home Made Pizza

In the last few months I've had oppertunities to spend time in the kitchen making home made breads and other yeast activated doughs. The best one I've come up with so far is a Pizza crust. The secret to success is not in the dough alone, however. I started using a 16" pizza pie pan that has small holes in the bottom that helps make the bottom of the crust crispy. Plus, with the oil in the dough I have never had to put any oil on the pizza pan. As a matter of fact, as long as I don't get any sauce on the pan, I don't even bother washing it. I don't recommend you not wash your pan. It's just that I make pizza at home so often that the pan is always in use.

One other thing. If you plan to do a lot of baking, especially breads, I recommend you get a heavy duty KitchenAid mixer. It will cut your preperation time in half and keep you from burning up your hand mixer, which I don't recommend you ever use for preparing dough.

Ingredients:

Dough:

Directions:

In large mixing bowl add 2 cups flour, sugar, salt and yeast. Mix well. Add hot water and Olive oil and mix with a wire wisk until all ingredients are well combined. Mix an additional 2 minutes. If using a KitchenAid blender, use kneading attachment. Add 2 more cups of flour and mix on low until all the flour is incorperated. If mixture does not yet pull clean from the sides add 1/4 cup flour at a time until it does. Turn onto a floured surface and knead by hand for 2 minutes. Place dough in a clean bowl with a little olive oil and turn to cover all the dough with oil. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and a towel. Leave in a warm draft free area until doubled in size (about 20 minutes). Punch dough down to get rid of all the bubbles. Turn on to floured surface and roll out into approximately a 16" circle. place on Pizza pie pan. With a fork prick holes into dough all over to prevent large bubbles from forming. Cover with a towel and allow to rise for 15 minutes. Preheat oven to 450° F with rack at the bottom. Bake the crust for 15 minutes on bottom rack. Add desired ingredients (see below for suggestions). Bake an additional 15 to 20 minutes until crust is at desired crispyness.

Topping Suggestions

Standard

Topping Ingredients:

Directions:

Spoon on your favorite spagetti sauce onto your half-baked dough as above. 1/2 cup or so should do it. If you like it saucy then add more. Sprinkle on about 1/4 to 1/2 lbs of your favorite shredded cheese (mix and match if you desire). Add your favorite toppings. See list above for suggestions. Sprinkle with another 1/4 to 1/2 lbs shredded cheese. Finish baking as above.

Cheesy

Directions:

From the list of cheeses above use about 1/4 lbs of each of your favorite shredded cheese. Kraft sells a four cheese mix that has Mazzarella, Provolone, Romano and Parmasan. It's what I use most often. Top also with your favorites. Finish baking as above.

Barbecue

Topping Ingredients:

Directions:

Spread the barbecue sauce evenly over half-baked Pizza crust. Sprinkle half of the cheese over the sauce. Sprinkle the beef and sausage over the cheese. Top with remaining cheese. Finish baking as above.

If you have comments or suggestions, email me at jeff_pal@hotmail.com