Tasty Tuesday: Pizza! YUM!!

I dug into the archives of one of my prior blogs for this post so I didn't have to try to type it all over again. Enjoy!

For most people pizza is either ordered from the local Pizza Hut or comes from a freezer case in the local grocery store. When you say homemade pizza it is assumed you will buy a pre-made crust and just add your own toppings. The idea of making pizza dough seems to make a lot of people nervous and a lot of people think it's very time consuming. It doesn't have to be! I can make pizza, including the dough, in about an hour.

The first step to any pizza is the dough. Here is the recipe I use.

2 - 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
2 1/4 tsp (or 1 package) active dry yeast or bread machine yeast
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup warm water (120-130F)
2 tbsp olive oil

In a large mixing bowl combine 3/4 cup of the all-purpose flour, 1/2 cup whole wheat flour, yeast and salt. Add warm water and olive oil. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds, scraping bowl constantly. Beat on high speed for 3 minutes. Using a wooden spoon or dough hook on your electric mixer, stir in as much of the remaining all-purpose flour as you can.

Now, either leave it in the mixer at a medium speed for the next 3-5 minutes or turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface for kneading. During the 3-5 minutes in the mixer or the 3-5 minutes of hand kneading, add in enough of the remaining all-purpose flour to make a moderately stiff dough that is smooth and elastic. Cover and let it rest for 10 minutes.

Punch dough down. Lightly coat a 12- or 14-inch pizza pan with nonstick spray or line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Press dough out into pan with your hands, lightly building up edges. Prick dough all over with a fork.

Now that the dough is read it's time to add things to it. You can put just about anything on pizza. Depending on how you like your pizza you might need to bake it in two stages. Below is the recipe for an example of this.

Tomato Bruschetta Pizza
2 tbsp olive oil
3/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
2 cloves garlic, minced1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1/8 tsp black pepper
4 medium red tomatoes, sliced (lay on a paper towel to drain excess moisture)
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup snipped fresh basil

Brush the crust with 1 tbsp of the olive oil and sprinkle with mozzarella cheese. Bake in 425F oven for 7-10 minutes until lightly browned.

Meanwhile, in a bowl stir together garlic, 1 tbsp olive oil, vinegar and pepper.

Top hot crust with tomato slices, then drizzle with oil and vinegar mixture and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

Bake for 10-12 minutes more or until cheese is melted. Top with fresh basil. Cut and enjoy!

In this case the first layer of cheese needed to melt before the rest of the toppings were added. In other cases where you are using a base sauce such as tomato sauce, bbq sauce, pesto, or anything along those lines you would only need to bake the pizza once if you wanted. In those cases you have two choices. You can either put the crust in the oven with nothing on it for 7-10 minutes and then take it out, top it, and put it back in for 10-12 minutes. Or, you can put everything on and bake the pizza for 17-22 minutes. However, I find that baking the crust first and then adding the toppings and putting it back in makes for a better crust on the pizza. That twice baked method is how we always bake our pizza.

One other thing you can do with this dough is make calzones. Just divide the dough into 4-6 equal portions, depending on how many you want to make, press each piece into a 6-inch circle. Put some cheese, sauce, and other toppings on one have of the round. Fold the other half over and pinch the sides together to seal the pocket. Place the calzones on a lightly greased baking pan and brush the tops with olive oil. You can also sprinkle them with a little cheese if you want. Parmesan holds up very well in the oven and makes a great calzone topper. Bake the calzones at 425F for 20-25 minutes. Be careful because the filling will be very hot. Hubby loves calzones because they are so easy to take for lunch the next day; if there are any left that is.

I hope this has inspire some people to go ahead and really make homemade pizza or calzones. Pizza doesn't have to take hours to do. Yes there are pizza doughs that will take longer, but the dough recipe I've provided makes a delicious dough and doesn't take forever. So go on and give it a try and tell me how it goes!

Visit City Wife, Country Life for more Tasty Tuesday recipes and ideas.