Homemade pizza - how I love thee! I love the convenience of ordering a pizza - but nothing compares to making it yourself. I like mine with pepperoni, mushrooms, olives, onions and red peppers. And that many toppings would cost a small fortune at a pizza shop.
I pre-cook most of the toppings to rid them of excess water and soften them to reduce cooking time in the oven. I also microwave the pepperoni between paper towels for 1 minute to get rid of lots of grease.
I decided to try a new recipe for the dough after seeing this post on The Way the Cookie Crumbles. I was intrigued by the addition of the wine to the crust and I wanted to try out an overnight rise after getting the Bread Baker's Apprentice. I also wanted to add some whole wheat dough - since I had just bought a new bag of whole wheat flour.
Ingredients
Dough:
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- 15 ounces bread flour and 7 ounces whole wheat flour
- 1¾ teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 2 teaspoons instant yeast
- ¼ cups white wine (I used vermouth)
- 1½ cups water
- cornmeal for dusting (I never ended up using this)
1. Heat the oil and oregano in a small saucepan until fragrant. Mix in the water and wine/vermouth.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, mix the flour, salt, sugar, and yeast. With the mixer on low speed, pour in the liquid mixture. Continue mixing on medium-low speed until the dough comes together, and then knead on medium-low speed for 8 minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic.
3. Spray a large bowl with nonstick spray. Form the dough into a ball and coat with oil. Place the ball of dough in the bowl and cover with plastic wrap.
4. Refrigerate the dough overnight. The next day it will take about 5 hours at room temperature to warm and finish rising.
5. Place a pizza stone on the bottom rack of the oven and preheat the oven to 500ºC.
6. Divide the dough and shape each portion into a ball. Form the dough into three equal balls (weigh on your food scale). If you are not using some of the dough at this point you can wrap with plastic wrap and freeze for later. Let the balls of dough relax for 10-30 minutes.
7. Work with one ball of dough at a time on a lightly floured surface. Flatten the dough, and gently stretch it into a 12 inch circle. Place the dough on a piece of parchment placed on the back of a sheet pan. (Or use a pizza peel if you have one)
8. Add your sauce and toppings. Gently slide pizza onto pre-heated pizza stone. Bake for 12 minutes. Let the pizza cool on the stone for about 5 minutes before slicing and serving.
How much dough does this recipe make?
ReplyDeleteAnon - You should get 3 balls of dough - each makes 1 12-inch pizza.
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