Saturday, September 22, 2007

Yummy Pizza!


My first homemade pizza was a success! I really enjoyed this crust; it was recommended by the ladies on the What's Cooking board and it did not disappoint! I was a little nervous since yeast is not usually my friend and then I forgot to add 2 ingredients (the salt and the olive oil) until after I started kneading the dough. It turned out perfectly, though. I even made my own pizza sauce for the pizza. I was so domestic, my new name is now Martha.


Jay's Pizza Crust

2-1/4 t active dry yeast (1 packet)
1/2 t brown sugar
1-1/2 c warm water (110 degrees F / 45 degrees C)
1 t salt
2 T olive oil
3-1/3 c all-purpose flour

In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast and brown sugar in the water, and let sit 10 minutes. Stir the salt and oil into the yeast solution. Mix in 2-1/2 cups of the flour.

Turn dough out onto a clean, well floured surface, and knead in more flour until the dough is no longer sticky. Place the dough into a well oiled bowl, and cover with a cloth. Let the dough rise until doubled in size; approximately 1 hour. Punch down the dough and form a tight ball. Allow the dough to relax a little before rolling out.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. If you are baking the dough on a pizza stone, you may place your toppings on the dough, and bake immediately. If you are baking your pizza in a pan, lightly oil the pan, and let the dough rise 15-20 minutes before topping and baking it. Bake pizza in preheated oven, until the cheese and crust are golden brown, about 15-20 minutes.

**Makes 2 large pizzas
Pizza Sauce
from me
1 can tomato sauce
2 t dried oregano
2 t dried basil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 T olive oil
salt
pepper
Combine all ingredients in a small saucepan and heat on low for about 8 minutes. Let cool slightly before spreading on crust.
I topped the pizza with green pepper, red onion, black olives, pepperoni, provel cheese and parmesan.

2 comments:

Jana said...

Oooohh, Linda, your blog might actually inspire me to cook something! I'll have to check it more often, because it will take some serious work for me to get excited about cooking! Although now that our temperatures are DIPPING into the low 90's (unlike yours soaring to that point), maybe it won't seem like such a horrendous prospect.

Renea said...

Hmm, something I haven't tried to make yet, pizza crust. Great job!