We Love Pizza!

Making pizza for the family has always been fun and gratifying ( it is always a sure winner in the family!). I was thrilled when the October challenge for Daring Bakers was none else than making pizza dough to your liking of toppings (wow, easy!).

The basic pizza dough recipe was taken from "The Bread Baker's Apprentice" by Peter Reinhart. We were instructed to leave the dough overnight and try the traditional toss to shape the pizza.

I kind of ended in the short cut method. The very minute my son sensed I am going to make pizza, he demanded right away to have pizza for dinner (i just can't resist the pleading eyes:-). I am pleased how the dough has risen perfectly, I can tell that this is going to be a good one. I used half of the dough to instantly gratify the craving of the family , I saved the other half and promised to come back to it using the tossing method.

I used ready made tomato sauce for my pizza base. My family's favorite is ham and cheese so I topped the pizza with shredded ham, mozzarella cheese, olives, and red capsicum. Baked it for 18-20mins @ 180C and voila! homemade pizza to go.

Here's the basic pizza dough recipe:



BASIC PIZZA DOUGH:">Original recipe taken from “The Bread Baker’s Apprentice” by Peter Reinhart.

Makes 6 pizza crusts (about 9-12 inches/23-30 cm in diameter).

Ingredients:
4 1/2 Cups (20 1/4 ounces/607.5 g) Unbleached high-gluten (%14) bread flour or all purpose flour, chilled
1 3/4 Tsp Salt
1 Tsp Instant yeast
1 3/4 Cups (14 ounces/420g or 420ml) Water, ice cold (40° F/4.5° C)
1 Tb sugar
Semolina/durum flour or cornmeal for dusting

1. Mix together the flour, salt and instant yeast in a big bowl (or in the bowl of your stand mixer).

2. Add the oil, sugar and cold water and mix well (with the help of a large wooden spoon or with the paddle attachment, on low speed) in order to form a sticky ball of dough. On a clean surface, knead for about 5-7 minutes, until the dough is smooth and the ingredients are homogeneously distributed. If it is too wet, add a little flour (not too much, though) and if it is too dry add 1 or 2 teaspoons extra water.

After forming the dough, i cut it into two, left the other half in the freezer while the other half, i lightly greased a deep dish to let rise the dough. After an hour, i punched it and knead again for 5 minutes and let rise for another 15minutes before using.

I also used a pizza pan with holes underneath so that the crust will be crispy. Voila! the result is a truly crispy, yummy ham&cheese pizza.