Homemade Cheese and Veggie Pizza - Feast Your Eyes

12-16-2008 @12:51PM laceration said... Over the last year I dialed in making pizza and its very close to the recipe linked to, but they over complicate it. I'm sure Semolina flour is great but I have never seen before in any store. Every time I eat pizza it is fantastic and special, but at the same time it is everyday food. You need not mystify the process with an exotic ingredient. High protein or bread flour works great. I use 3 cups. I also use a 1 tbl. of sugar and 1 tea of salt. I find if I use over 2 tbls. of olive oil it is too crispy, like a cracker. The best and cheapest yeast to use is the French stuff in a brick. This isn't in every store, but its worth seeking out. It will last over a year in your fridge in an air tight container. Use 1 teaspoon. You can follow those dreary kneading instructions or get a kitchen aid mixer, put it on the lowest speed with the dough hook. Add warm water slowly until all the flour is taken up into a ball. This will be right around a cup. To develop the gluten let it go for 15 minutes. The dough will rise in 1.5 hours or even less at room temperature. You can tell by the size. Since this recipe makes 2 10-12" pizzas you can simply put one in the fridge where it will rise overnight and be good for several days. Stretching it out when it is cold is more difficult so let it return to room temp before working with it. The stretching and tossing instructions were for those who want to run before they walk. They were advanced techniques that take a long time to develop. The writer of this blog and others will not succeed with those instructions and pizza making will remain inaccessible when it need not be. An easier way is to grab the edge and let the dough hang down. The weight of the dough will stretch it out, work your way around the perimeter. You can then stretch out the thicker parts in the center by placing the dough over your hands. You can then drape the dough over a large bowl, like the one you mixed it in if you used a kitchen aid mixer, and fine tune it. Other things I found at the link that add unnecessary labor and imho do not do much are punching the dough back down and cooking your sauce. For the sauce I get a can of tomatoes, a few garlic cloves thyme and black pepper and puree with a stick blender. This lasts me for several pizzas at least. It gets enough cooking when you actually make the pizza. Turn your oven all the way up and wait until its at full temperature, its done right before it burns, that's only 6 minutes in my oven. A pizza stone is essential, if you put it in a hot oven it will probably break. I always unstick the pizza from the peel by working it around the edge with a spatula.
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12-16-2008 @4:42PM Anjuli Ayer said... laceration, Really excellent comments. Yes, I wasn't suggesting I was offering up the easiest way to make pizza, but it is a recipe that has proved the most flavorful I have made at home. This was actually our first time at tossing the pizza in the air. Your technique is also excellent. When I cook at home, I like to get in there and try it. Techniques seems daunting, but many times are not. I have no professional experience and have only made pizza a handful of times.

I wanted to stress that there are many different dough recipes out there, most using more white flour. Semolina is accessible in almost every grocery store I have been to in NY and my hometown in CT. I find it makes a much crispier dough (which is not to everyone's liking). It was not added to be exotic, but simply to produce a different type of crust.

Also, I do find that cooking down the sauce makes a more complex flavor, but again, this is just for taste. If saved time is the desire, than a simpler sauce can also work well.
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