Pizza

Yesterday was the first day going off my weekly menu.  I have to say it worked GREAT!  I was able to plan in advance to make pizza.  Giving myself the 2 hours it takes to let the dough rise and bake the pizzas.  Part of Marcus' lesson was helping me mix the pizza dough.  We had lots of fun!  Here's the recipe along with pictures I took of each stage.

4 cups flour
1 1/2 cups plus 2 Tbl. Water
4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. dry active yeast (this amount needs some tweaking, I think next time I'll try 1 tsp.)

Mix the dough in a stand mixer, by hand or in a bread machine.  If you are using a stand mixer, mix it slowly for two minutes, faster for 5 minutes, and slow again for 2 minutes.  (Not sure what that does, but I'm sure there is a good reason.) 


Cover the dough and let it rise for 1 1/2 -2 hours or until double.  

Punch it down and push out the air bubbles.  Form the dough into a large ball then cut it into 4-5 equal pieces.
To make your pizza balls, shape each piece of dough into a ball.  Gently roll your dough into a ball, then stretch the top of the ball down and around the rest of the ball until the outer layer wraps around the other side.  Pinch the two ends together to make a smooth ball with a tight outer "skin."  Set your ball seems-side down where it can rest.  Dust your pizza balls with flour, and store them under a damp towel in a proofing tray or under a plastic wrap.  This will prevent the outside of the ball from drying out and creating a crust and becoming difficult to work with.  The top of the pizza ball should be soft and silky.  Your pizza balls will need to rest for about an hour to become soft and elastic so that they can be easily stretched into a thin crust pizza. If you wont need your dough for more than an hour, refrigerate it until you are ready to start.  If you don't have an hour to let your dough rest, you can cut back on this time.  When I made made them I only let them rest for about 10 minutes and they were just fine.  You can cut up your pizza toppings while it rests.

Next roll out your dough.  You'll want to roll it quite thin.

Place the rolled out dough on a sprayed (I use pam) pizza pan. Poke the dough with a fork in several places to prevent bubbles.  Then spread on your pizza sauce.  This time I just used a store bought sauce, but I usually make my own, it's MUCH better!  ;)  Then layer on your toppings.  These are the toppings I used.  I must add that the Kalamata olive pizza was the bomb!  Since we're vegan I didn't add any cheese.  We found we didn't miss it at all!  However I did sprinkle a little vegan Parmesan cheese over the top, but I'm not sure it really added that much to the flavor.  These pizzas were amazing!  I also drizzled extra virgin olive oil over it before baking it at 500 degrees for 7-10 minutes.  Or until crust is slightly browned. Enjoy!

  Heres the finished products!