Monday, March 28, 2011

Homemade Pizza

I have been making pizza for over 40 years.  My four kids always gobbled pizza up & my daughter recalls that I always made it every Friday night.  I've tried to pick up tips over the years.  Lately I've been using the Artisan Bread recipe for pizza, which makes a chewy, delicious crust.

For each pizza:

1 grapefruit size piece of Artisan Bread dough (check under the "bread" label)
cornmeal
parchment paper
pizza sauce
2 cups grated mozzarella
pepperoni,  cooked sausage, etc.,  or whatever you like

1.  Twenty minutes before baking time, preheat the oven with a baking stone placed on the rack at 550 degrees (or 500 degrees if that's your oven's max).

2.  Prepare all your toppings.

3.  Dust the surface of the refrigerated dough &  cut off a grapefruit- size piece of dough.   Dust the piece with flour & shape into a ball.  Here's my tip:  place the dough on a piece of parchment paper that will fit your baking stone.  Sprinkle the parchment with cornmeal & put the dough on this.  Cover the dough with 2 sheets of plastic wrap, overlapping to form a large square.

4.  Roll out the dough with a rolling pin right over the plastic wrap.  My pizzas are around 12-13".  Carefully peel off the plastic wrap & discard.

5.  Cover the dough with your favorite pizza sauce, being careful not to cover it too thickly.

6.  Scatter half the mozzarella on top of the sauce.  Add pepperoni, etc.  Now add the rest of the mozzarella.  Trim around the outside of the parchment paper, leaving about 1/2-1" overhang.

7.  Take a rimless baking sheet, or pizza peel, if you have one, and slide it under the pizza.  Now slide the pizza on to the hot stone.  The parchment paper makes this super-easy!  My pizzas get done in 7-8 minutes.  You may need 10-12 minutes in a 500 degree oven.

8.  Allow to cool slightly allowing the cheese to set.  We like to sprinkle dried oregano & parmesan on the pizza when it comes out of the oven.

9.  Enjoy!!

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