Foodie Friday: Homemade Pizza

First an update, then Pizza.  The flight to Florida went off without a hitch.  Our dear neighbor Susan drove us to the airport, you could set your watch by her timeliness.  She was an engineer for NASA for decades, precision is in her DNA.  The flight left and arrived on time, and was not one of the two American Airlines planes that clipped wingtips at National Airport today. Those two planes were taken out of service missing winglets.  I was on a plane once that backed into another plane on the ground and tore the winglets off. 

The hotel is a very predictable Hampton Inn, downtown.  Not a touristy part of town.  It is about a 5 mile taxi ride from here to the Port on Saturday morning.  

Florida feels a little like the twilight zone. Having lived here for two decades it feels like home, and at the same time it feels alien. South Florida is filled with immigrants and tRump voters at the same time and place.  How they can co-exist without spontaneously combusting I don't understand.  Traffic is horrible, and at the same time the Sun Rail high speed train station is a block away from the hotel.  (Not at the airport, cruise terminal or beach where people come and go, downtown near the Court House and library.)

Here are a few tips for making great pizza at home. 

If you have a stand mixer with a dough hook, pizza dough is easy to make and better than store bought. You can mix and knead by hand, but it is a bit more work. 

Basic Pizza dough: 

3/4 cup warm water -between 100-110 degrees F

2 teaspoons sugar (more or less) 

2 teaspoons dry active yeast. I use rapid rise that I buy online in one-pound bags, and store in the freezer, it keeps for years. 

2 cups +/- bread flour (high protein flour - in Britain it is known as strong flour.) 

1 teaspoon salt +/-

Drizzle of Olive Oil 

Method: 

Dissolve sugar in warm water, stir in yeast, set aside for 5-10 minutes. It will start to get bubbly. 

In the bowl of a stand mixer, mix flour, salt and a drizzle of olive oil.  Stir in yeast mixture. Using the dough hook start stand mixer on low.  If needed sprinkle in additional flour one small spoon at a time until a dough ball forms and pulls away from sides of the bowl. If it is to dry and there is loose flour around the bowl, add water a teaspoon at a time. The flip from too wet or dry to just right is a matter of a tiny amount of water or flour.   

Set a timer for 5 minutes, and mixer to medium low and allow it the knead for 5 minutes.  The dough may still be sticky.  Just before you turn the mixer off, drizzle a little olive oil around the outside. Cover and set in a warm place to rise for 1-3 hours.  The longer the rise the more flavor it will develop. 

Toppings: 

Top it with what you like.  There are no rules.  

I make a basic red sauce with a small can of tomato sauce and a heaping teaspoon or two of dried oregano, or mixed italian seasoning. 

Meat toppings should be pre-cooked.  If you are using italian sausage, or ground beef, cook them before using them.   

Top tip: Don't overdo the toppings. My most common failure is stacking the toppings thick and center fails to bake through before the outside edges are overcooked.  The one above was marginally too thick. 

Top tip #2: Get the oven very-very hot.  450 degrees F is a good temp.  I am using a pizza stone. This is a large flat ceramic block that heats with the oven and holds onto the heat.  I am struggling with things sticking to it.  So I stretch the dough and top it on a single sheet of heavy duty aluminum foil, and then slide the foil on and off of a cutting board and the pizza stone.  The foil rapidly transfers heat to the bottom of the crust, especially in the center were I find I most need it.  

There is no correct cooking time.  It is done, when it is done.  No two pizzas are the same, the thickness of the toppings, the temperature of the oven, even the temperature of the toppings will change the cooking time.  I start checking at about 10-minutes.  The one above was in the oven about 17 minutes, with the oven door opened once to take a couple of photos.  

I made pizza last Friday for out monthly LGBTQ community gathering. It was a hit. 

What are your favorite pizza toppings?  

Have you made your own dough?