[Relatively] Quick pizza from scratch
Tonight I tried a new recipe tonight, on a whim (I hit up the grocery store on the way home from work]. It was my first time making any pizza, much less two whole large pizzas, and they turned out extremely well. Only tools used were a food processor (with dough blade), oven, two pizza pans, and a pizza cutter. Adding the recipe here for my own records.
- Proof a teaspoon of yeast (dump it in 1/2 cup of warm water), let rest 10 minutes until one consistency.
- Add 3 cups of (bread, it’s high-gluten) flour to food processor, 2 teaspoons (on the small side, unless you like salt), a teaspoon+ of freshly ground black pepper (optional), and pulse the food processor for a few seconds.
- Turn food processor on, add the 1/2 cup of water, and then get another 1/2 cup of water and add that. Add 2 tablespoons+ olive oil to the mix. Make sure the dough isn’t sticky enough to stick to the sides, and not so dry that it’s not sticky. If not, either add a teaspoon of flour or water (1 per 30 seconds) until it’s the right consistency. Adding too quickly means it won’t work it’s way through, and you may over-do it.
- Take dough, knead for a few seconds, put in a greased bowl, and let rise in warm area. Try for an hour or two, but 30 minutes (the time needed to get the other ingredients) is possible.
- Get all of the other ingredients together. Add slicing blade to food processor if possible. Gather all veggies, and slice them.
- Grab dough, pre-heat oven to 500 (or a little above.)
- (Very lightly) flour a countertop. Knead for a minute or two, then cut into two. Make two flat-ish, 5/6-inch (but still a little thick) pizza crusts. Let sit for 10 minutes (which makes it easier to shape), and then roll the dough into real pizza-crust sizes.
- Add olive oil on top of the dough. Then add tomato sauce, then add cheese.
- Add veggies. If sliced in the food processor, you can stack ’em high, and they’ll simply bake down. Any thicker, and they may take a little longer. I used the 4mm slicer blade, and everything came out perfectly.
- Cook pizza for 10+ minutes, looking in @ 10 minutes. If you like, throw a 1/5th or less cup of water at the bottom, which [should] help the crust rise. If using a pizza stone, you can cook 2 @ the same time… one on the pizza stone which will cook faster, and one beneath. When the first is done, move the second up on the stone, and it will finish in just a few minutes.
No, I did not make the sauce. Needed to save something for next time!!! Actually, next time I will let the dough rise in the fridge either from AM to PM, or overnight, though that may be overdoing it a bit. We’ll see.