Comments (36)

By Estela - Weekly Bite, February 23, 2010 12:11 pm

I did it! I finally figured out how to make good pizza crust! Well… good by my standards .

My poor husband has suffered through partially uncooked pizza crust, insanely thick and dense crust, and crust so thin it just falls apart.

In case you forgot… my husband loves pizza. You can read all about his love for pizza here.

A few weeks back I purchased some Fleischmann’s Pizza Crust Yeast.

I was hesitant to use it. I wanted to use the regular yeast because I wanted to do it right.

I prefer a whole wheat crust, but since I’d messed up so many times I decided to try it with regular flour first.

Even though the package says you don’t have to let the dough rise, I stuck in the fridge for a few hours… and boy did it rise!

When I presented this pizza to my husband he was a little worried.

After the first bite… he LOVED it!!

Not only did I score with the crust, but my neighbor gave me a great recipe for homemade pizza sauce.

This was my first time making pizza sauce from scratch…. it was so good!

I doubled the recipe to fit the massive pizza dough I had just made.

At first I thought it was a tad salty, but I trusted the recipe and left it as is.

I’m so glad I didn’t change the recipe! Aside from a great crust, the sauce really made the pizza!

Oh, and feta cheese. We love feta cheese in our house and a pizza wouldn’t be complete without it.

Pizza Crust:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 envelope Fleischmann’s PIzza Crust Yeast
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 2/3 cup very warm water
• 3 tablespoons olive oil

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Combine flour, salt, and yeast in a mixer with the hook attachment.

Slowly add the water in, then the olive oil. Mix at low speed until a soft dough is formed. The dough will be sticky.

Let it knead in the mixer for about 4-5 minutes.

Take a medium sized bowl and drizzle about 1 tablespoon of olive oil so it coats the inside of the bowl.

Form the dough into a ball and place into the oiled bowl. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and let it sit in the fridge for at least 3 hours.

Once the dough is ready, just shape into whatever shape you like. This works great for a 12 inch round pizza or a big rectangle shape.

Add your sauce and toppings and bake for 12 – 15 minutes. Crust should be golden brown.

Pizza Sauce:

• 8 oz can tomato sauce
• 1 1/2 tsp sugar
• 2 tsp oregano
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 1/4 tsp onion salt

Mix all ingredients and let stand for a while. I made this after I made the pizza dough. While the dough was rising in the fridge, I let the sauce sit. I also doubled this recipe to fit my pizza crust.

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Question of the Day?

What are your favorite pizza toppings? My favorite is a greek pizza with red onion, kalamata olives, feta, and banana peppers! YUM!

Comments (20)

By Estela - Weekly Bite, December 15, 2009 8:51 am

Part One.

My husband recently returned from a business trip in Denmark. He had his share of the local cuisine.

Here is an email I received from him late one night:

So, many lessons learned last night:

1. If you order bruschetta… it’s an english muffin pizza
2. If you order pizza with chicken… it may also come with peas, onions, mushrooms, and gravy on it, think pot pie pizza
3. One particular brand of local beer makes me violently ill

will call in morning. love, me

Hmmm, how many beers did he actually have?

Ok, let’s forget about the beer thing….

My husband loves pizza. If he could eat it everyday he would.

He’s from New York…I think it’s in their blood.

So… I decided to make some at home.

This was my first time ever making pizza dough from scratch.

Here’s the recipe I adapted from Sunset Magazine:

• 1 package (2 1/4 tsp) active dry yeast
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 4 cups whole wheat flour
• 2 teaspoons salt

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, stir yeast into 1 1/2 cups warm water (100° to 110°). Let stand until yeast dissolves, about 5 minutes. Add 1/4 cup oil, the flour, and salt. Mix with dough hook on low speed to blend, then mix on medium speed until dough is very smooth and stretchy, 8 to 10 minutes. Dough will feel tacky.

2. Cover dough and let rise at room temperature until doubled in bulk, about 1 1/2 hours.

3. Punch down dough and let rise again until doubled, 30 to 45 minutes.

I pressed the dough out on a sheet pan and added sauce, mozzarella cheese, chicken, sauteed bell peppers and mushrooms, black olives, and cherry tomatoes.

I baked the pizza at 450 degrees for 20 minutes.


The result… not bad… but not good.
Everything was good but the crust
What I failed to realize what that the pizza dough actually make four pizzas… oops!
The pizza crust was almost 2 inches thick… like a deep dish pizza. This did not taste good with a whole wheat crust.

Lessons for next time:

1. Use either whole wheat pastry flour or white flour.
2. Divide the dough into fours so we’re not eating 10 pound pizza slices.
3. Buy a pizza stone.

Stay tuned for Part Two.