How to Make Homemade Pizza Dough

Hello all, again I have to apologize for my long absence. My laptop died and although Joe readily shares our other computer with me, I sometimes find it hard to get motivated to go into the office and use the desktop. Some kind of mind block I guess. So here I sit, early on a Sunday morning trying to catch up on a myriad of posts that I have to write. Because, although I have not been blogging, I have still been cooking.

This post is from something that I made in late January. At that point, I was too superstitious to post about it. Confused, I will explain. Joe and I along with my parents and my brothers are HUGE Giants football fans. If any of you are fellow Giants fans you will know that this past season was very up and down but with a great ending. We think the Giants started to turn the heat up in the game against the Jets on Christmas Eve. Well we were all together to watch that so of course we had to get together the next week to watch too. We watched together and they won. So of course we had to watch the wild card round of the playoffs together (are you sensing a pattern here?) It was for that wild card game that I decided to make pizzas. Joe and I had been making them for ourselves for quite awhile but had never shared them with my family. They were a big hit but I couldn't blog about them yet. What if I let the secret out and then they lost. Every week I said, ok if they lose I will write the post, but they never lost. They went all the way on to win the Superbowl. Then I was in the clear to blog about it and my laptop died. Such is life I guess.

I served 3 different pizzas that day, a traditional Chicago deep dish, a BBQ Chicken and a veggie pizza with roasted red pepper sauce. Here is the recipe for the pizza dough that I have not yet shared and the veggie pizza. Enjoy!

Pizza Dough
From Annie's Eats

Ingredients: 
½ cup warm water
2¼ tsp. instant yeast
4 cups (22 oz.) bread flour, plus more for dusting
1½ tsp. salt
1¼ cup water, at room temperature
2 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil

Directions: 
Measure the warm water into a 2-cup liquid measuring cup.  Sprinkle the yeast over the top.  In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the bread flour and salt, mixing briefly to blend.  Measure the room temperature water into the measuring cup with the yeast-water mixture.  With the mixer on low speed, pour in the yeast-water mixture as well as the olive oil.  Mix until a cohesive dough is formed.  Switch to the dough hook.  Knead on low speed until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes.  Transfer to a lightly oiled bowl, turning once to coat.  Cover with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled in size, 1½-2 hours.

Press down the dough to deflate it.  Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface.  Divide the dough into two equal pieces.  Form each piece of dough into a smooth, round ball.  (If freezing the dough, wrap in plastic wrap and freeze at this point.)  Cover with a damp cloth.  Let the dough relax for at least 10 minutes but no longer than 30 minutes.

To bake, preheat the oven and pizza stone to 500˚ F for at least 30 minutes.  Transfer the dough to your shaping surface, lightly sprinkled with cornmeal.  Shape the dough with lightly floured hands.  Brush the outer edge lightly with olive oil.  Top as desired.  Bake until the crust is golden brown, and cheese is bubbling, 8-12 minutes.

Veggie Pizza with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce

From Colleen's Kitchen Therapy

Ingredients:

1 ball of pizza dough, shaped and prepared as directed above

1 12oz. jar roasted red pepper

1 1/2 cups tomato puree

1/3 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes

1 ts. garlic powder

1 med onion, sliced thin

1 bell pepper, large chop

6-8 cremini mushrooms, sliced

2 tsp. olive oil

2 cup gouda cheese, shredded

Directions:

In a food processor or blender, combine the roasted red pepper and tomato puree and pulse until the pepper are chopped small and blended into the tomato puree. Transfer to a saucepan, add red pepper flakes and garlic powder and cook over low heat for 20 minutes.

While the sauce is cooking, in a large saute pan, heat the olive oil over medium high heat. Add the onions and cook, 3-4 minutes until they start to get soft. Add in the pepper and mushrooms and cook another 4-5 minutes until the onions are nice and soft, and the pepper and mushrooms are cooked but still have a bit of a bite to them. Transfer to a plate lined with paper towels to soak up some of the liquid.

Spread the sauce a little at a time onto your prepared pizza dough. You will have more sauce than is needed for one pizza. Save the rest and use for pasta or another pizza. Sprinkle the cheese on top of the layer of sauce. Add the vegetables. Bake in a 450 degree oven for 10-15 minutes until the crust is brown and the cheese is bubbly