Pizza is honestly also amongst my top five favourite foods and I love all styles of pizza as long as they perfect all of the criterium of their style. I define pizza as normal thickness and high quality, which for me doesn't get any better than Dante's Italian Restaurant in Thornhill. Another category in my mind would be cheap style but still using good ingredients, and for me the best example is Bellisimos in downtown Toronto, east of Yonge st. Thin and perfect, well I still haven't found the best.
So, I happened to have a surplus of mozzarella cheese and tomatoes (a situation I really don't mind being in) and since I always have bread flour on hand and it having been a while since my girl had any pizza, pizza happened. I made two pizzas but only photographed the first one as the second one got crumpled (sadfacedboy). I'm having difficulty right now with a system for getting the pizza into the oven onto something pre-heated and baking with the broiling element. I think if I baked from the bottom on a decent round pan and stopped being an idiot about sliding onto a preheated pan then things would work out fine. With regards to buying pizza dough from the store, don't, it doesn't taste anywhere near as good as this dough.
I actually made another pizza tonight using up the remaining dough, and this time, I lightly oiled a non-stick baking pan, and covered it lightly with semolina, baked it from the bottom, then finished it from the top, and it's fine. Actually it's more than fine, it's delicious.
Ingredients
This is probably enough for about four thin 14" pizzas.
Dough
454g Unbleached Bread Flour
30g Honey
30g Olive Oil
5g Instant Fast Acting Yeast
325g Cold Water
1. Combine all ingredients, stir. After dough comes together, turn out onto floured board.
2. Flour hands, knead for 4 minutes. Rest for 2 minutes. Repeat six times.
3. Place dough in a lightly oiled bowl covered with a plastic bag for 3 hours.
4. Roll out to desired thickness (baked thickness increases exponentially based on rolled thickness, thinest possible before tearing will be about 1.25 times thicker when baked, 1 inches thick unbaked will be about 2.5-3 inches thick after baking).
5. Thinly spread your tomato sauce, most of the cheese, toppings, then a bit more cheese.
6. Bake until desired done-ness at 425F on the bottom rack, then 500F using the broiling element until the desired done ness on the top is reached. This will vary by how soft you like your pizza, and how thick or thin you roll your dough.
Tomato Sauce
5 Ripe Vine Tomatoes (Blanched, Peeled, Crushed, Heart Removed)
1 Tbsp ea Dried Basil, Milled Dried Shitake Mushroom
1/2 Tbsp Granulated Garlic Powder
1 Tsp Fine Ground Porcini Mushroom Powder
2 Tsp Squid Sauce
Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper
1. Heat sauce pan over medium heat.
2. Add oil, wait for oil to ripple.
3. Add tomatoes, cook for 90 seconds, stirring.
4. Add other ingredients, cook for 3 minutes, stirring.
5. Allow to cook before using on pizza.
So, I happened to have a surplus of mozzarella cheese and tomatoes (a situation I really don't mind being in) and since I always have bread flour on hand and it having been a while since my girl had any pizza, pizza happened. I made two pizzas but only photographed the first one as the second one got crumpled (sadfacedboy). I'm having difficulty right now with a system for getting the pizza into the oven onto something pre-heated and baking with the broiling element. I think if I baked from the bottom on a decent round pan and stopped being an idiot about sliding onto a preheated pan then things would work out fine. With regards to buying pizza dough from the store, don't, it doesn't taste anywhere near as good as this dough.
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| Wow, pre-packaged pizza toppings really look like pre-packaged pizza toppings. |
 |
| Sliced tomato, mozzarella, feta, black olives, black forest ham. Delicious. |
I actually made another pizza tonight using up the remaining dough, and this time, I lightly oiled a non-stick baking pan, and covered it lightly with semolina, baked it from the bottom, then finished it from the top, and it's fine. Actually it's more than fine, it's delicious.
Ingredients
This is probably enough for about four thin 14" pizzas.
Dough
454g Unbleached Bread Flour
30g Honey
30g Olive Oil
5g Instant Fast Acting Yeast
325g Cold Water
1. Combine all ingredients, stir. After dough comes together, turn out onto floured board.
2. Flour hands, knead for 4 minutes. Rest for 2 minutes. Repeat six times.
3. Place dough in a lightly oiled bowl covered with a plastic bag for 3 hours.
4. Roll out to desired thickness (baked thickness increases exponentially based on rolled thickness, thinest possible before tearing will be about 1.25 times thicker when baked, 1 inches thick unbaked will be about 2.5-3 inches thick after baking).
5. Thinly spread your tomato sauce, most of the cheese, toppings, then a bit more cheese.
6. Bake until desired done-ness at 425F on the bottom rack, then 500F using the broiling element until the desired done ness on the top is reached. This will vary by how soft you like your pizza, and how thick or thin you roll your dough.
Tomato Sauce
5 Ripe Vine Tomatoes (Blanched, Peeled, Crushed, Heart Removed)
1 Tbsp ea Dried Basil, Milled Dried Shitake Mushroom
1/2 Tbsp Granulated Garlic Powder
1 Tsp Fine Ground Porcini Mushroom Powder
2 Tsp Squid Sauce
Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper
1. Heat sauce pan over medium heat.
2. Add oil, wait for oil to ripple.
3. Add tomatoes, cook for 90 seconds, stirring.
4. Add other ingredients, cook for 3 minutes, stirring.
5. Allow to cook before using on pizza.
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