Homemade Pizza
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:
- If you order bruschetta… it’s an english muffin pizza
- If you order pizza with chicken… it may also come with peas, onions, mushrooms, and gravy on it, think pot pie pizza
- 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:
- Use either whole wheat pastry flour or white flour.
- Divide the dough into fours so we’re not eating 10 pound pizza slices.
- Buy a pizza stone.
- Question of the Day….
Have you ever made pizza dough from scratch?
If you have, do mind sharing the recipe? I’ve made it my mission to perfect pizza making!
Stay tuned for Part Two.
I had to work for the longest time making pizza crust that my husband liked. Finally I did it. I mixed it for nearly an hour and then let it rise for nearly an hour and then spread it as thin as I could. It turns out he now uses my crust as a base to compare everything else to! It’s awesome once you finally get it down right.
We make pizza every Friday night and have found this recipe to work quite well. I don’t know where I found it originally. It’s a thin crust, so you don’t need to let it rise. For a crispier crust, bake it for 5 – 10 minutes before adding the toppings. Happy Pizza making to you!
in a bowl disolve 1/2 teaspoon yeast with 3/4 cup warm water.
add: 1 3/4 cup flour (I do half wheat, half white, but we have made it completely wheat, too); 1/2 teaspoon sugar; 1/4 teaspoon salt.
mix and knead, adding flour as necessary so dough is not sticky
roll out and bake or add your toppings
enjoy!
I love making pizza dough from scratch! I used a very simlar recipe with some honey for sweetness. The first time I made it, I didn’t realize it could make 2 gigantic pizzas! We really like because the crust is a bit thinner and tougher.
We always buy ready-made pizza doughs, but sooner or later we’re going to have to work up the courage to make our own. It’s just hard to even really appreciate homemade pizza – not enough grease!
What a bummer, it looks so good!!!
it certainly LOOKS good! I’ve never made dough from scratch, but normally buy it and whole foods or trader joes
That pizza looks delicious!!! I’ve never made dough from cratch but I’d love to try!
Wow very ambbitious making your own dough! I would make a mess of it for sure. I love pizza, but just buy the Bobolli whole wheat ones from the grocery. The topping look great.
Aww too bad the crust didn’t turn out how you wanted. It looks awesome anyway! lol
i don’t dare make dough from scratch (i’m a pastry mess) but i do buy pre-bought dough from trader joe’s
home made dough?? WOW! that pizza seriously looks AWEESOME
I’ve never made homemade pizza dough but I definitely recommend the whole wheat pre-made dough from Trader Joe’s. It’s really cheap and really delicious!
We enjoy a good pizza over here too, but I’ve always bought pre-made pizza crust. I was just thinking I wanted to try my hand at making crust from scratch. Do you ever mix your own sauce? I used to buy the ready-made but my mom shared her spiced up version and I’ve been using it ever since. It’s so good. I would be happy to share the recipe!
I would love to try a homemade sauce! Email me the recipe 🙂
Ah, well…lesson learned! for what it’s worth, it looks amazing. Just skim off the crust length-wise and you’re good! 🙂
I love getting the whole wheat pizza crust from Trader Joe’s–I’ll have to try making my own on an adventurous day! Pizza in Naples, Italy was definitely the best I’ve ever had! Take your hubby there 🙂
Ummm….WOW-zers!!!
can you believe I have NEVER made pizza from scratch?!?! this looks fabulous!
I actually just posted TODAY about homemade pizza! yours looks wonderful!!!
oh… the pizza looks enticing….I love that fabulous color!