Pizza Dough & Toppings
Pizza Dough . Pesto topping . Spinach topping . Standard topping . Barbecuing Pizza
Gourmet Sleuth: Conversion & Ingredient Tables
metric weight equivalents for flour and water . Bread Making Notes
Pizza Dough
revised September 2003
Either of these two recipes will produce dough for two 12-inch or one large thin crust pizza(s). (Please note that you may be using slightly more or less flour, depending on the humidity that day.)
Ingredients
1. Regular Dough - can be spun in air
- 1 scant tsp active dry yeast
- ¼ c lukewarm water
- ½ c + 2 Tbsp water (room temperature)
- 1 Tbsp olive oil
- ¼ c whole wheat flour
- 2¼ c unbleached all-purpose flour (more or less)
- 1 tsp salt
2. Slacker Dough
-
1 tsp active dry yeast
- ¼ c lukewarm water
- ¾ c water (room temperature)
- 3 Tbsp olive oil
- ¼ c whole wheat flour
- 2¼ c unbleached all-purpose flour (more or less)
- 1 tsp salt
Preparation
- In a small bowl, mix the yeast in ¼ c lukewarm water (do the baby's bottle test on your wrist) til it is creamy.
- In a large bowl, add olive oil to rest of water. With a wooden spoon, stir in all but ½ c of all-purpose flour. Add the yeast mixture. Cover with plastic and let rest for 20 minutes. The dough should be quite slack.
- Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured board. Sprinkle the salt and ¼ c flour on top.
- Wash and dry the mixing bowl. Then knead the dough for about 8 minutes, from time to time adding as little flour as you can (not much more than ¼ c) to keep it from sticking. The dough should still be quite slack but smooth and silky.
- Put dough in the clean dry bowl (it should be large enough for the dough to double - there is no need to oil the bowl). Cover bowl tightly with plastic wrap and let rise on the countertop for about one hour, or until double.
- Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured board. Divide the dough into two balls if making two pizzas. Cover with plastic and allow to rest for no more than 30 minutes (or not at all).
- 30 minutes before baking, turn on the oven to as high as it will go. (Our oven goes to about 500F.). We have a baking stone and bake one large pizza directly on the stone. Stretch and pat the dough to desired size. Put parchment paper or sprinkle cornmeal on peel before laying down shaped pizza dough. -OR- Stretch and pat the dough onto two pizza pans. I like to put corn meal on the bottom of the pan but it isn't necessary. There is enough oil in the dough that the pan does not have to be oiled.
- Unless you are barbecuing, add your favourite toppings. Place pizza on the second to bottom shelf of the oven (Please read about transferring pizza from peel to stone) and immediately turn down the oven to 400F; bake for 20 - 25 minutes until the crust is golden and crisp and the cheese is bubbling. (We turn the pizza around after about 10 minutes to adjust for uneven heat in our oven.)
If barbecuing, after shaping the dough onto two lightly oiled pans, put the pans in the barbecue at medium heat (lid closed) until the bottoms are lightly golden - about 2 minutes. Remove the pans from the barbecue and flip the shells over. Dress the shells with your favourite toppings (try tomato sauce, basil, thinly sliced chorizo, thinly sliced onion, mushrooms, capers, chopped spinach and mozzarella). Then put the pans back into the barbecue (lid closed) at medium heat until the cheese is bubbling - about 4 minutes.
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Standard "Works" (tomato, mozzarella, etc.)
(click on image to see photos of pizza assembly)
Ingredients
- tomato sauce
- olive oil
- crushed oregano
- crushed basil
- grated parmesan
- grated mozzarella
- pepperoni
- Morrocan style black olives
- roasted red pepper, julienned
- oven dried tomatoes
- capers
- thinly sliced onion
Preparation
- Spread some tomato sauce and little olive oil evenly. Sprinkle with dry crushed oregano and basil leaves and a little grated parmesan.
- Add mozzarella, pepperoni, some dry black olives, not too many slices of roasted red pepper, a few sundried tomatoes, a few capers, and thinly sliced onion. Sprinkle a little more mozzarella on top.
- Bake on second to bottom shelf of oven at 400F for 20 - 25 minutes until the crust is golden and crisp and the cheese is bubbling.
Serve with Eggplant Pepper Antipasto Sauce if you are really feeling decadent.
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Spinach, Onions, Asiago, etc.
Thanks to my sister PRM for this idea. She puts a little balsamic vinegar in the onion mixture at the end....
Ingredients
- 1 large onion, sliced thinly
- olive oil
- 1 bunch spinach leaves, washed
- crumbled asiago or goat cheese
- pecans
- roasted red pepper, julienned
Preparation
- Heat some olive oil in a skillet. Throw in the onions and caramelize them. Set aside.
- Steam the spinach until it is just limp. Plunge into cold water and squeeze out as much water from the spinach that you can. Chop coarsely. Set aside.
- Spread the onion mixture evenly over the pizza.
- Sprinkle the spinach, red pepper, pecans and asiago or goat cheese evenly over the onion mix.
- Bake on second to bottom shelf of oven at 400F for 20 - 25 minutes until the crust is golden and crisp and the cheese is bubbling.
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Pesto and Goat Cheese
Ingredients
- basil pesto
- goat's cheese
- roasted red pepper, julienned
- roasted whole garlic cloves
- small onion, thinly sliced
Preparation
- Spread a liberal amount of pesto evenly over the pizza.
- Place the goat's cheese (we use a softish chevre), roasted red pepper, garlic cloves and onion evenly over the pesto.
- Bake on second to bottom shelf of oven at 400F for 20 - 25 minutes until the crust is golden and crisp and the cheese is bubbling.
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ejm (aka llizard)
2000, 2001, 2002, 2003
Toronto Ontario Canada
