YID.DISH: Homemade Pizza
Image by JCarrot
I’m sure that like me, many of you cannot get Hanukkah cooking and baking out of your minds! I will be making potato leek latkes, homemade apple sauce and some chewy ginger cookies tonight. As you can tell, I’m in full holiday mode! Anyway, if you are looking for a break from the holiday food madness I have a great recipe for you!
My birthday was about a month and a half ago. As much as I enjoy eating out I really wanted to cook my birthday dinner at home with my boyfriend this year. We decided our main course would be homemade pizza – something neither of us had ever made. I had heard it was very easy to make but having never made any type of yeast-based bread, I was a bit nervous!
I looked into a few recipes and ended up using one based on a recipe from one of my [favorite food bloggers I will say that this recipe didn’t make quite enough dough for me. I think next time I will try this recipe. The most fun thing about making your own pizza is that you can put anything you want on it (and it can be as healthy or unhealthy as you’d like)! We were especially proud of our pizzas since the vast majority of the ingredients were local and organic. I hope you enjoy making your own pizza. Feel free to leave comments with your favorite topping combination!
Dough:
1 1/2 cups warm water
1 package (2 1/4 teaspoons) of active dry yeast
3 1/2 cups flour (we used whole wheat but you can also do a combination)
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon sugar
If you have a mixer with a bowl you can make the dough easily with it. If you don’t, have no fear! I don’t have one and mine turned out great. I also don’t have a pizza stone. Definitely use one if you have it but a cookie sheet works just fine.
In the large bowl add the warm water. Sprinkle on the yeast and let sit for 5 minutes until the yeast is dissolved. Stir to dissolve completely if needed at the end of 5 minutes.
Mix in the olive oil, flour, salt and sugar until combined. Knead until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes.
Place ball of dough in a bowl that has been coated lightly with olive oil. Turn the dough around in the bowl so that it gets coated with the oil. Cover with plastic wrap. Let sit in a warm place (75-85°F) until it doubles in size, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours. If you don’t have a warm spot in the house you can heat the oven to 150 degrees, and then turn off the oven. Place the bowl of dough in this warmed oven to rise. Preparing the Pizzas:
Preaheat the oven to 450°F for at least 30 mins.
Remove the plastic cover from the dough and punch the dough down so it deflates a bit. Divide the dough in half. Form two round balls of dough. Place each in its own bowl, cover with plastic and let sit for 10 minutes.
Prepare whatever toppings you’d like.
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