Pizza

If you went ahead and made your homemade cheese, you should definitely treat yourself by using it to top a homemade pizza! And if you have store bought cheese, that's okay too!

I've experimented with many different crusts, and I still do, but this has been the favorite that I make when I'm not in the mood for experiments. I found it here. There is also a good recipe for a chunky sauce on that page so take a look! Basically, I follow the directions, but I don't use semolina flour, I add molasses, and I use more yeast.

So, here is what you need:

Yeast, Molasses, Bread Flour, Wheat Flour, Sugar, Salt, & Hot Water.

I use my food processor to make this. I've made pizza by hand and with a mixer, but the processor does everything I need it to do, quickly and with very little mess, so that is what I'm sticking with.

The first thing you need to do after you have your dough hook in the food processor is to add the yeast and sugar to the bowl:

I add around 2 TBS of yeast, and 2 TSP of sugar.

Then grab some really good water (I am very picky about my water - so if you don't have good water, use a bottle of spring water - think Mellow Mushroom!) Measure out 1 1/2 cups and microwave it until it is hot, my water normally goes for about 45 seconds before it is hot enough. As the recipe on the site says, most recipes tell you to just use warm water, and I was hesitant at first to use hot, but it works out just fine, so add it to the bowl, pulse 2-3 times, then walk away to measure out your dry ingredients and let this get all nice and bubbly, like so:

Next, add in the dry ingredients:

I used 3 cups of bread flour and 1/2 cup of wheat flour, as well as a TSP of salt and some molasses. If I had to guess on the molasses it's probably around a TBS, measuring it is too messy so I just dump a little in and it seems to work out alright each time!

Next. turn the processor on and let it do the work for you. Here is a peek down the tube while it is running:

Basically just leave it on until everything is mixed together, you won't need to knead it either, so that is especially why I love the food processor.

When it looks like it has all come together, go ahead and scoop it all out, it will be a little sticky but thats okay because the olive oil will help you out. Add around a TBS of it to a bowl:

Then add the dough and roll it around to coat it in the oil:

Now, cover it with a cloth and stick it in a warm place to rise. I use my microwave for this by propping a little bit of the cloth outside the microwave door so it won't close all the way and the light stays on to keep it nice and warm! I used to use my oven and the light in there, but I need my oven to bake chicken and to get the pizza stone warming, so that's out!

Here is the dough after rising for an hour:

Give it a good punch:

And then, throw some flour down on a clean surface and tear the dough in half - each half will make one pizza. Take the half you are working with and sprinkle it with flour so it is easy to work with, then roll it out:

Place it on the pizza pan you are using and pierce it all over with a fork:

My stepson doesn't like his crust on the pizza stone, so I use a pizza pan for this one, but you'll see with the grown up pizza how I make using the stone a little easier for me...

Add the toppings you'd like, for this one first pizza sauce & then cheese:

Then more cheese and turkey pepperoni... half of the crust is stuffed with cheese sticks too:

Throw it in a very hot oven - 450 to 500 degrees and cook it until it looks done.

Now for the grown up pizza, I use a pizza screen to put it on the stone, have you seen pizza screens before? Here is the one I bought. I had so much trouble getting the pizza from the peel to the stone that I had given up on my stone, but the screen is basically like a very thin pizza pan, so I can make the pizza and not have to worry about wiggling it onto the stone, I just set it on there, real pizza saver!

Anyway, roll it out like before then set it on the screen and poke some holes in it with a fork:

This is going to be a Buffalo Chicken pizza. First, add wing sauce, we use Frank's Red Hot Chicken wing sauce:

I would have liked more but we were all out, this worked out okay though.

Then add chicken:

While the dough was rising, I cooked frozen chicken tenders (3 of them) for 30 minutes in a little of the hot sauce and sprinkled them with parsley, then when they were done I let them cool while everything else was getting ready and ripped them up with my hands while adding them to the pizza.

Next, add the chunks of the Homemade Cheese you made a little bit ago!

I used all of it, minus the pieces hubby and I kept munching on, it is so good!!!

My stone has now been in the oven for around an hour and 15 minutes, I first put it in while I was cooking the chicken at 400 degrees, and after the chicken was done I turned it up to 500:

I had just taken the pepperoni out of the oven and moved it up to the top rack, so now all I have to do is set my pizza screen on top of the stone:

This one cooks until the crust is brown and the cheese is melted.

Meanwhile, here is the pepperoni:

Notice how there is very little grease compared to regular pepperoni!

And take a good look at the pretty crust you made:

Yummy!

I use my scissors to cut it up. I may be weird but it works better than anything else:

Your other should be about done after 10-15 minutes, take it and slice it up too:

I should have let it cook a little longer, the crust could use a bit more browning and wasn't as crunchy/chewy as I normally like, but we were starving, so I took off our pieces and threw it back in the oven for a bit to cook it a little longer.

I served both of these up with homemade ranch - from a packet! I use the Hidden Valley Buttermilk Ranch packet and mix it in with olive oil mayo, skim milk, and low fat sour cream, and it is delicious, way better than anything in a bottle!

Let me know if you have a favorite dough recipe of your own!

Love and Luck to you,

The Packet Queen