Pizza thread

[Navigator Six]

Mainly as a vehicle for me to post the best pizza recipe I've ever come across, but as we've already got some pizza stuff kicking around, why not a thread?

Links
indi's beer pizza dough


So, the recipe. This comes courtesy the excellent Cook's Country (if you're in the US, their magazine is top-notch; highly recommend getting a subscription). The crust is simply amazing: crispy all the way through, with fantastic texture. The dough uses relatively little flour, and it's not difficult at all to make if you have the two-and-a-half or three hours necessary to get through the prep and risings. You don't need a pizza stone or any fancy shit; just a standard rimmed baking sheet.

The Dough
3 T olive oil
3/4 c warm water (I think 110 F / 43 C is generally a good temp target for making dough, but if you haven't got a thermometer, try and match the temp on the inside of your wrist)
1 1/2 c bread flour (yeah, bread flour, the heavy stuff)
2 1/4 t instant / rapid-rise yeast (this is equivalent to a single packet if you have 'em)
1 t sugar
3/4 t salt

The Rest
1 28oz can diced tomatoes (or two 400g cans, which is about the same)
1 T olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 t dried oregano
1/8 t salt
8 oz mozzarella cheese, shredded (~2 c)
1/4 c grated Parmesan (get it fresh and do your own grating)
2 T fresh basil, chopped

So, the dough. Coat a rimmed baking sheet with 2T of the olive oil (don't skimp on this or the dough will stick later). Combine the water and the remaining 1T of oil in a small cup. In a large bowl, mix the rest of the (dry) dough ingredients. Add your small cup of liquid and stir briefly until everything starts to come together. Then knead the dough until it's smooth and elastic (this will probably take ten or fifteen minutes; it should be quite smooth when it's done). It's possible to do your kneading with a mixer, but it's certainly not necessary (and I haven't got one).

Now the interesting bit. Transfer the dough to your baking sheet and flip it a couple of times to coat it in the oil. Then stretch the dough into a 10x6-inch rectangle (this is roughly half the length and width of a baking sheet). Cover the baking sheet loosely with plastic wrap and leave it in a warm place to rise until doubled in size, about 1 or 1.5 hours (an easy way to do this is to preheat your oven to some low temp, maybe 30 C or so, then turn it off and let the dough rise inside it; it usually only takes an hour for the dough to double in size when I do that). Now, leave the dough in the baking sheet and just stretch the corners until it fills the pan. Cover it loosely with the plastic again, and let it rise until slightly puffed, 45 minutes or so. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 500 F / 260 C.

During the second dough rising, put together the topping. Drain the tomatoes in a sieve, removing as much of the liquid as you can. Combine the drained tomatoes, oil, garlic, oregano, and salt in a bowl (this is a very dry, chunky sauce). In a separate bowl, combine the two cheeses. The pizza is topped cheese first; sprinkle the cheese mixture over your risen dough, leaving a half-inch or so around the edges for the crust, then top with the tomato mixture. Bake until the pizza is well-browned and bubbling, about 15 minutes. Slide the pizza out of the pan and onto a wire rack (this is where it's important that you oiled the pan well; I use a thin, flexible icing spatula to get the pizza out until it can slide on its own). Sprinkle the pizza with the basil, and let it cool for five minutes before serving.

[F*** My Aunt Rita]

So, the recipe. This comes courtesy the excellent Cook's Country (if you're in the US, their magazine is top-notch; highly recommend getting a subscription).

All of America's Test Kitchen's publication are good.

[Mendolorian Girl]

we always make our own pizza's. Unfortunately gf is a vegi (I know right!) so we're a bit more limited than most on toppings.

Our Fav topping is:

Spinach (a lot, leave it in the bag, prick a couple of holes and then chuck it in the microwave for 2 mins)
Baby button mushrooms
Mozzella
Sweet Chilli sauce drizzled all over

SO FUCKING GOOD

For sauce, I make enough for 2 pizzas then freeze half.

1 Tin tomatoes
Small tin concentrated tomato puree
Shit loads oregano/basil
Shit loads garlic

Chuck it all in a pan, cook it down to a nice consistency. Dun.

Note: a bread maker is awesome for pizza. You don't need an expensive one if you're only really going to use it for pizza. Just makes everything so much easier. Chuck ingredients in, turn on, come back 40 mins later and make pizza!

[Blutreiter]

As one italian cook once told me: "I dont care how much it is, sugar has nothing to do with pizza. I am making pizza, not cake!"

That dude made some of the best pizzas I have eaten in my life, and I have been to a lot of restaurants around europe. (sadly, I have no idea about pizzadough myself)

[Ampoliros]

This is a cool thread. I started making my own pizzas about 6 months ago, still kinda finetuning things though but getting much better. Even after cheaping out on ingredients (i am poor), i can make a very good meal for 2-3 people for $3.

Note: a bread maker is awesome for pizza. You don't need an expensive one if you're only really going to use it for pizza. Just makes everything so much easier. Chuck ingredients in, turn on, come back 40 mins later and make pizza!

I have a stand mixer and i make three batches of pizza dough at a time (roughly ~2c flour per batch, unlike the OP), and freeze them after kneading+short rise. takes about 20 minutes to put it together and bag, you just unfreeze as you need it. Refrigeration overnight/freezing seems to dramatically improve the dough as well vs some of my initial trials. They'll last for a few days in the fridge before they start getting a little yeasty, I've not kept any frozen beyond about a week and a half because i use them up pretty regularly.

I'm mostly finding that i need to improve my herbs right now, as i'm using dried cheap italian blend instead of fresh, and i desire more quality and more control. I use a baking sheet as well, and I've yet to hear anyone complain about square slices.

[Rudolf Miller]

Give me all of the garlic... ALL OF IT!

That's how I like my pizza.

[harum]

That sugar is just a shortcut to make the yeast raise faster, you don't really need it.

If you know you're gonna make pizza in a day or two, this dough is amazing:

(for 2 round pizzas)
250g flour
~150ml warm water (exact amount depends on kind of flour, just make sure you end up with elastic/non sticky dough at the end)
3g fresh yeast
7g olive oil
6g salt

Mix/knead etc, then form 200g dough balls and let them raise slowly in the fridge at 5°c for a 24-48 hours. Works for bread too, cold rise is amazing. Less yeast means more aroma.

For even better pizza get a pizza stone/cheap piece of chamotte. Heat it in the oven till its really fucking hot and you come pretty close to pizzeria quality with good toppings and dough.

If you're making sauce, don't put any basil in there. Olive oil/garlic/oregano/tomatoes, maybe chili powder. Put that basil on top of the pizza when it's almost done instead.

@Ampoliros
If you keep your dough in the fridge anyway try reducing yeast content, you can go down to amounts that require a coke dealer scale and let it raise for a week in the fridge. IIRC "proper" italian dough was 3g brewer's yeast on 2kg of flour/55g salt and that's just with 6 hour raise at room temperature.