This January, we've had a record five days of school canceled because of the cold. People who've lived here for years tell me that this is unprecedented. It's been nice having the kids home with me but we did quickly run out of things to do indoors. So on some of those days, we ignored the "too cold to go out" warnings and went out for lunch and a grocery run. On other days, we stayed indoors and baked.
Last week, we made pizza from scratch. I don't usually do this, because home-made crust never turns out the way I want it to. It is not a bad crust, as far as home oven crusts go, but it isn't the sort of tender, crisp, unchewy crust one gets in a pizzeria that has a wood-fire brick oven. I've learnt over time that it has less to do with the kind of pan or dough one uses than the temperature of the oven. My oven has a very low upper limit, which is usually nowhere even near the upper limits promised on the temperature dial. I only discovered this duplicity upon investing in an oven thermometer, following quite a few baking adventures with dismal outcomes in spite of issue-free mixing processes. This is an unfortunate thing (the low maximum temperature, not the duplicity) because it means I am not unable to successfully bake stuff that I enjoy baking but that requires very high heat, like yeast breads.
Still, I try. I tell myself that the practice (even if not also the results) can do no harm.
And I keep looking for a decent pizza dough recipe that works with the limitations of my oven.
This is one of those decent recipes. There are only two things in this recipe that set it apart from other, previous recipes that have fallen flat:
a lot of olive oil - much more than the token tablespoonful in other recipes
allowing the yeast to proof before adding in other ingredients.
Here's our recipe:
Ingredients:
Method:
The girls patted out and assembled this pizza. Because there were little hands involved, we didn't use a preheated pizza stone and instead used a cool pizza pan. Kate doesn't like pepperoni so we left her third without.
Last week, we made pizza from scratch. I don't usually do this, because home-made crust never turns out the way I want it to. It is not a bad crust, as far as home oven crusts go, but it isn't the sort of tender, crisp, unchewy crust one gets in a pizzeria that has a wood-fire brick oven. I've learnt over time that it has less to do with the kind of pan or dough one uses than the temperature of the oven. My oven has a very low upper limit, which is usually nowhere even near the upper limits promised on the temperature dial. I only discovered this duplicity upon investing in an oven thermometer, following quite a few baking adventures with dismal outcomes in spite of issue-free mixing processes. This is an unfortunate thing (the low maximum temperature, not the duplicity) because it means I am not unable to successfully bake stuff that I enjoy baking but that requires very high heat, like yeast breads.
Still, I try. I tell myself that the practice (even if not also the results) can do no harm.
And I keep looking for a decent pizza dough recipe that works with the limitations of my oven.
This is one of those decent recipes. There are only two things in this recipe that set it apart from other, previous recipes that have fallen flat:
a lot of olive oil - much more than the token tablespoonful in other recipes
allowing the yeast to proof before adding in other ingredients.
Here's our recipe:
Ingredients:
- 1 1/3 cups of water (between 110 and 130 F)
- One package (1/4 oz) or 2 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
- 1/2 tsp sugar
- 1/4 cup olive oil, plus more for oiling the bowl
- 3 1/2 cups bread flour, plus more for dusting
- 1 tsp salt
Method:
- Dissolve the yeast in the water with the sugar, in mixing bowl. Let stand for about 10 minutes, or as long as necessary for bubbles to form and foam.
- Stir in the oil.
- Add the flour and salt and knead with dough hook in mixer (or knead by hand with about 3/4 of the total amount of flour, adding the remainder as you knead).
- Oil a large bowl, roll dough into large ball and place in bowl. Cover with moist towel and let rise about 1 hour until doubled in size. In the summer, I leave it in a locked car on our driveway. In the winter, I preheat the oven to the lowest temperature, turn it off and leave it in the oven along with a second, large bowl of boiling water to provide heat and moisture.
- Use dough immediately or refrigerate (or freeze) overnight. Pat half the dough onto a preheated pizza stone (or 12" unheated pan) dusted with flour or cornmeal. Prebake 5 minutes in a 450-500F oven. Then spread sauce and toppings and bake for another 10-15 minutes, or until cheese is melted.
The girls patted out and assembled this pizza. Because there were little hands involved, we didn't use a preheated pizza stone and instead used a cool pizza pan. Kate doesn't like pepperoni so we left her third without.
