Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Pizza, Pizza!!

I think I've finally created the perfect homemade pizza crust.  Yay!  The dough rises super easily, it bakes up so that it has just a touch of crunch, but complete dough-i-ness on the inside, and it tastes great with any of your favorite pizza toppings! 

Homemade pizza crust

Ingredients

2 1/4 teaspoon active dry yeast (one .25 ounce package does the trick!)
1 teaspoon sugar
1 1/2 cups water, warmed to 110 degrees F (45 degrees C)  ****see note below****
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
2 tablespoons EVOO, plus extra
3 1/3 cups flour

1. Dissolve yeast and sugar in the warm water.  Let stand until creamy and frothy, about 10 minutes. 

2. Add in salt, garlic powder, onion powder, and 2 tablespoons EVOO.  Stir. 

3. Mix in 2 1/2 cups of flour.  Knead dough on a well floured flat surface.  It will be quite sticky at this point, but add in more flour (the remaining amount of flour) until it is smooth. 

4. Place dough in a well oiled large bowl.  Cover and let dough rise for one hour.  It should double in size. 

5. Punch down dough and let it form a tight ball.  Let rest for another 2 minutes. 

6. Roll out dough or hand roll directly onto baking pan (that has been sprayed with PAM cooking spray).  Let stand for another 10-15 minutes. 

7. Bake dough for 9 minutes without any toppings.  This will start to give it a crunchy, browned bottom.  Add toppings and cook another 15 minutes.  Adjust cooking times if you want a softer or crisper crust.

Bon appetit!

The absolute key to making any homemade dough is the water temperature.  The water temperature MUST be 110/45 degrees!!!!!  I made pizza crust several times without taking the temperature of the water -- just bringing water up to what I thought was the correct temperature.  Guess what?!  The dough didn't turn out well!  The first time that I accurately measured the temperature I got a COMPLETELY different result.  What I was making before tasted fine, but this was a MUCH better product.

You can use more or less of the garlic and onion powders.  I started to use them for extra flavours and have really enjoyed the addition.  I've found the best amounts for our tastebuds is the 1/4 teaspoon. 

This recipe makes a BIG pizza!

Up close of the crust

Side view of the crust.

4 comments:

Daren said...

That looks delicious! Gotta love the pizza. :)

Natasha said...

I've been making pizza a lot lately, but I've never added spices to the crust. Will have to try that next time!

Andrea said...

Thanks Daren!

Let me know which spices/herbs you try Natasha. I've also been thinking about trying to do a parmesan crust or something along those lines.... Homemade pizza is so cheap and easy! It makes a great meal, plus LOTS of leftovers!

Natasha said...

I made pizza tonight and put garlic powder in the crust and used slightly warmer water. What a big difference!