Pizza Dough

This had rave reviews from the family! There was silence while we all ate and a few thumbs up signs were flashed. I was asked to make it again too! Hurrah!

I made the dough in the morning before work and let it sit on the counter covered with plastic wrap all day. The dough rolled easily and I baked on a silpat mat.

I used canned tomato sauce that I doctored up with garlic power and Italian seasoning. The grown up pizza had brisket, pepperoni, and red onion. I used a mix of Mexican and mozzarella cheese. The kids decided to turn theirs into calzones and used mozzarella cheese and pepperoni.

Pizza Dough
Adapted from Piecrust and Pasta

Makes 4 half sheet size pizzas 

4 1/2 tsp active dry yeast (2 packets)
1 teaspoon honey
2 cups warm water, 110 to 115 degrees F
6 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoon kosher salt
2 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, plus additional for brushing

cornmeal

In the bowl of the mixer dissolve the yeast and honey in the water. Let sit for 5 minutes.

Add the flour, salt and olive oil. With the dough hook, mix on low speed for about 5 minutes. 

Place dough in a well oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap.

Let it rise for at least one hour - two hours and up to the whole day. 

[Note: For overnight, put it into an oiled zipper freezer bag to refrigerate or freeze. Before using, let come to room temperature on the counter. It will expand so if your bag is small, you may want to transfer to a bowl for the duration.]

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.
Pinch off a piece of dough the size of your fist. Liberally sprinkle your counter with cornmeal and roll the dough ball with a floured rolling pin to a thin circle about 1/8 thick. Add your favorite toppings and bake 15 minutes or until browned on the edges and the cheese bubbles.

THE No-Rise Pizza Crust

Mozzerella and Parmesean pizza topped
with fresh oregano and basil
Photo credit of Kelcey =)

I found it! I found it! This is the go to no rise pizza crust recipe compared to my previous pizza dough attempt. The basis of this dough is found on all recipes. Combine the ingredients, top with your favorite toppings, and bake! Two exciting aspects of this recipe? Using yeast and using the dough hook on my Kitchen Aid mixer!

According to a few of the reviewers, if you proof the yeast in the water with the sugar before adding it to dry ingredients it will be a thicker chewy crust. If you combine all the dry and then add the wet ingredients the dough will be thinner and crispier.

I have made it two times (so far!).

The first time I added to the dough 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, 1 heaping tsp garlic powder, and 1 tsp of dried herbs. I also used 2 cups white flour and 1 cup whole wheat. I proofed the yeast prior to mixing it into the dry ingredients but did not let the dough rise. I cooked it for 20 minutes at 350F. This was a soft and doughy pizza crust recipe.

The second time I prepared the dough following the recipe below (no herbs/garlic/cheese, and all white flour) and cooked it for 20 minutes at 420F, I liked the slightly crispy dough better when cooked at the higher temperature.

Next time I will try 450F and see how that comes out. I also would like to try this on a pizza stone/tray to see if that will help the bottom crisp up better too.

Very easy to double the recipe, make bread sticks out of, or add herbs too.

Happy eating!

Update 4/16/2014: Preheat oven to 500F with cast iron griddle. Cook pizza on the pan for 10-15 minutes. When I cook over 500 the smoke detector goes off.

Recipe Idea: Pulled Pork Pizza using the North Carolina Influenced Pulled Pork. Roll out dough. Cover dough with a thin layer of olive oil and minced garlic. Add a layer of sliced red onion, pulled pork, cheese, fresh cilantro, and a drizzle of bbq sauce.


THE No-Rise Pizza Crust
makes one medium size pizza

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp white sugar
2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast

In a small bowl combine warm water and yeast. Let this sit together for a few minutes. Meanwhile combine flour, salt, and sugar. Add oil. Add water/yeast mix. Roll out then use your toppings of choice!

Pizza Attempt #2

You should make your own pizza at home. You might say, "Alas! I have no time!" or "How could I possibly make a pizza when I get home from work? I am far to hungry!" or "Frozen is just the easier option." Ok, well you are partly right. Sometimes frozen pizza can be easier. However, in 20 minutes you can still have fresh pizza!

I bought an herb flavored pizza dough from Trader Joe's, this is a ready to go ball of dough. The ball of dough is sized out for 2, so I split it in half. Tomorrow's dinner!

Ready to start cooking? Start the clock!

Preheat oven to 425F. Press out the dough, spread with tomato sauce, top with cheese! By this time the oven should be just about preheated. Pop it in for 6-10 minutes.

In that 6-10 minutes I was able to wash some dishes and make a small Caesar salad.

The sauce I used was plain tomato sauce. I added a 1/4 tsp of garlic powder and oregano, and a sprinkle of red pepper flakes.

I cooked it on my silpat mat and it crisped up nicely, I didn't use cornmeal or anything on the bottom of the crust.

Happy Eating!!

Pizza Dough

While I like to think that everything I make comes out most excellent, it is not always true. I tried to make this well reviewed pizza dough from AllRecipes from scratch. I have never used yeast before and I have never made pizza dough before - so this was an exciting adventure!

This is a no rise dough that can be created and turned into pizza in an hour! 

I used my food processor to combine the ingredients. However when adding the yeast to the flour mixture some of the liquid leaked out the bottom (food processors only can hold limited amounts of liquid). So I think this had a lot to do with the texture of my dough. It was a stiff/biscuit type of dough.

Next time I think I would add a little more oil a tad bit more water or reduce some of the flour. I also dusted the surface quite a bit with flour since I was worried about sticking (those cinnamon rolls have me nervous now!). You should also use cornmeal to coat the pan. While the flour does the job, I think the cornmeal will add a great texture and flavor that flour can't do and the flour added to the biscuit texture of the dough.

One review said to use half the water with the yeast, then add in rest of the water when combining the yeast and flour. Another review used their mixer with the dough hook. I've never used my dough hook attachment, so I'm excited to try the dough next time!

I added in about a tsp of onion powder, garlic powder, and a heaping tsp of oregano to the dough. I liked this flavor and will keep with it. Other reviews used Italian seasoning.

I used a tomato basil jar pasta sauce and the 6 cheese Italian blend from a bag.

I precooked the dough for about 5 minutes as some reviews said the cheese melted before the dough was done, but I don't think that was necessary as the entire thing cooked so quickly in the 450F oven.

One reviewer had an idea for toppings: "My favorite is 1T softened butter and 1 1/2 T garlic bread seasoning spread over the crust. (don't use too much!) Fresh diced tomatoes, and fresh mozzarella , sprinkled with basil and black pepper before and after baking"

But anyways, here are some pictures to tide you over for now and I'll be sure to update!

Yeast

Dough

Dough patted into a ball and let rest

Rolled out!

Sauce and cheese, brushed the crust with olive oil

Baked!

Chicago

I was in Chicago for a few days! Chicago reminded me a lot of Boston, it was not as fast paced as New York and has a rich history. We didn't touch on the night life or jazz scene, or even see the numerous museums that are in the area, but that will be next time!

Here is my review of what we did! :)

Skyline from the Boat Tour

Tourist things:
Wendella Sight Seeing Boat Tour - a 90 minute architecture tour and points out many of the famous buildings (Trump Tower, Wrigley Tower, Residential buildings, Theater Buildings, etc) and some of their history (river reversal, fire, history of the buildings too). This was a great way to kick off the trip and start to get the lay of the land. A lot of the technical terms were over my head but you go from the river into Lake Michigan and get the skyline view.

Willis Tower & Sky Deck (aka Sears Tower) - Heart stopping! Huge waits, if you are considering going to any of the other places listed on the GoChicago pass, I'd invest in one. We were in line for a little over 2 hours. You are brought from room to room to see different history of the building of the tower and fun facts. However if you can bypass the line, you may as well.

Shedd Aquarium - Way bigger than the New England Aquarium! There are 4D shows, penguins, an Amazon exhibit, a water show... Lots to see and do! Easy spend 3-5 hours here. It was a little pricey, but worth it if you can spend the time and see all the fish! It was very interesting how many of the exhibits were tailored to the Great Lakes especially since I know next to nothing about them. If you invest in the GoChicago pass you can bypass the lines here too. It was an hour and a half to two hour wait otherwise.

Buckingham Fountain is right next to Millennium Park.

 
Millennium Park - Home to "The Bean," gardens, bridges, and live music. Nice to walk around and people watch, this is a place you can take as long or as short of a visit to see.

Navy Pier - Not really sure what the hype was about here... We went, we looked. There were restaurants, boat cruises leaving from here, a few shows (Cirque du Solei, Chicago Shakespeare Theater), and fireworks at night. If you are looking for a nice skyline view or want to see a show, this seems like a good place. But if you aren't going to a show and you have to triage your list of sites, feel free to skip this one.

Starved Rock National Park - This was great! It was nice to get out of the city and see what else was going on in Illinois. Nothing compared to NH mountain hiking, but it was a short -ish easy route along wooden walkways. Interesting historical points and information about the legends, people who used to live there, and the dam that is currently there. We had a picnic lunch there, if you have time to check it out and have access to a car, take the trip!

Food:
This is the important part of the trip of course. We had to try the local cuisine!

Deep Dish Pizza - We were recommended to Gino's. There is quite a wait here (are we surprised?) but it was worth it! This pizza is dense buttery crust (not flake-y like from Unos the chain restaurant), chunky tomato sauce, and about a pound of cheese.

 Hot Dogs - Chicago hot dogs are "Vienna" hot dogs and served on a poppy seed bun. They have all sorts of toppings such as mustard, diced white onions, tomato slices, pickled peppers, dill pickle spear, celery salt, and relish. I liked the hot dog better and the bun was pretty good too! But I think the toppings were a little overwhelming. PS, don't ask for ketchup!

Italian Beef - Our final meal before we left the beautiful city of Chicago. We went to Johnnies and ordered a "beef hot" and french fries. This was spicy! But very good. Shredded beef with pickled veggies. I recommend searching out a place that serves these and giving it a try!

 Happy Traveling!!