Hallelujah Pizza Night!

Mothers, fathers, kids of all ages, and dogs who are lucky enough to be fed left over crust shout, "Hallelujah!" when it is Pizza night.  My family is no exception.  Rarely do we order out for pizza; If we do, it's from Bongiorno in Crestline Village (shameless plug alert!)  because they have the best pizza ever!  On most pizza nights, we make our own crust and all!  Now, the crust is something you can made in advance and freeze, or you can just make it a couple of hours before dinner so it will have time to rise.   Also, kids and parents alike love the fact that they can make their own personal pan with whatever toppings they want.  This is a great way to spend some fun family time together and to get your child to try different things; they tend to be more receptive if they have a hand in making it.


Pizza has gotten a bad health wrap, mainly because of the "CHAINS" that make this oily, greasy, fattening pizza and crust, BUT I am here to preach the gospel unto you: pizza can be healthy!  Well, at least healthier than what you get from the chain pizza place.  Think about it. Thin crust, tomato sauce (healthy), garlic (healthy), mushrooms (healthy) onion (healthy) peppers (healthy) olives (healthy), pepperoni (Healt....ok, you got me there, it's horrible for you but so yummy).  Pizza, like anything, is what you make it.  I am thinking grilled chicken and spinach would make great toppings for a pizza, but tonight we are going with the traditional pepperoni/sausage/bacon toppings.  Really, just put whatever you want on there, for when it comes to toppings, there are NO RULES!


NOTE: If you prefer a more crisp crust, you need to use bread flour when making the pizza dough.  AP flour is fine, but it will produce a chewier crust. My family likes a crispy crust.


This makes two 16 inch pizza's or four 8 inch pizza's


Ingredients:

4 cups bread flour

1 teaspoon sugar
1 envelop of Instant yeast
2 teaspoons Kosher salt
1 1/2 cups of warm water - between 100 and 110 degrees F.
2 tablespoons of olive oil (plus a bit more to oil a large bowl to allow your dough to rise in)
1 tablespoon of cornmeal (To sprinkle onto your pan when forming the dough)

You can do this by hand or with a mixer.  

In your large mixing bowl, or your mixer and dough hook, combine your flour, salt, sugar, and instant dry yeast and give those a mix with a wooden spoon, or just by turning the mixer on low. 

WITH A MIXER:  Add your water and olive oil with your mixer on low speed.  The dough should come together nicely.  If it is too crumbly, add a little bit more olive oil.  If it is too sticky, add a tablespoon of flour.  Knead with your mixer and dough hook for 3 min or until it forms a ball and cleans the sides of the mixing bowl.

NO MIXER:  form a well in the flour and add your olive oil and water.  With a fork, slowly stir the liquid while incorporating the flour slowly.  When it all starts coming together, get your hands in it and just gently mix with your hands.  Turn it over onto a well floured cutting board or counter and knead for 7 minutes or until it forms a soft dough that isn't to tacky.  

Now, take the dough ball and put in in your greased medium bowl.  Cover with plastic wrap and let it rise in a warm place.  You can preheat your oven to 150, turn it off, and let your dough rise in your warm oven.  1 hour until it's doubled in size. 

Preheat your oven to 500 degrees (if you have a pizza stone, let it preheat with the oven) 

Punch the dough down, form into a ball, and divide into 2 even dough balls or 4 if you are making smaller individual pizzas. Put dough balls on a plate, cover with a damp cloth, and let them rest for about 15 min. 

It is very easy to form the pizza dough by hand.  Get your pizza pan, sprinkle with cornmeal and set the dough ball in the middle.   Press in center of the ball and just spread it/stretch it  into a circle making the center of the pizza thinner than the edges. (You can throw it from hand to hand to stretch it out, but you  don't have to throw it in the air while spinning it....they just do that for show...feel free to go ahead and try it, but don't call me to come scrape the pizza dough off of your ceiling! )

Top with your favorite tomato sauce/pizza sauce and toppings then put it in the oven until edges are brown... about 10 min. 

Here is what we are using as toppings:

Emeril's Marinara sauce (I like this instead of a store bought pizza sauce) 

Pepperoni

Bacon 

Crumbled Italian Sausage

Mozzarella Cheese

Romano Cheese

You can even make it square!