Where did my infant go?

Pizza Love

I've been thinking about bread a great deal lately.  Especially when I go to the grocery store, stand in front of the sliced breads, cringe at the price, read the labels and the slew of questionable ingredients and always end up thinking "I could make this."

I had a bad crash and burn with bread, and I really do enjoy the pre-made frozen loaves.  But it was super hot in Kentucky today and I just wanted to have sandwiches for dinner.  You can't have sandwiches when you have no bread, and I didn't have hours to thaw out a frozen loaf.  So I ended up in the deli section buying wheat rolls.

A few nights ago I was faced with a similar dilemma, only it wasn't too hot to cook, so I went through as many recipes for pizza crust as I could find and settled on making a hybrid of a couple that I thought would be easy.  These hybrids only come about when I realize I don't have the ingredients for the recipe, so I had to decide on what I thought might work and go from there.  With baking being an exact science, I'm always intimidated when venturing out on my own.  However, I feel like this one is a winner and I'll be making it again.

Pizza Crust

In a bowl add together:
1 1/3 cups warm water (between 105 and 115 degrees F)
1 pre-measured packet of active dry yeast (2 1/4 tablespoons)

let stand until the yeast is dissolved (I find that most every recipe calls for a 5 minute bloom time)

Then add:
3 1/2 to 3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon honey

I used my Kitchen Aid stand mixer with the dough hook and only added about 3 cups of the flour, let it work on stir until it combined, then turned it up to medium speed to knead for 10 minutes and added flour as needed until it formed a soft, smooth dough that began to pull away from the bowl.

It was super sticky to work with, but I lightly oiled another bowl and placed the dough in it and gave it a quick roll as to coat the entire ball with oil.  I then covered it with plastic wrap and let it rise for an hour until it doubled in bulk.  I then separated it into two balls and let it rest another 10 minutes.

When it came time to separate the dough and form them into circles, a part of me really wanted to get wild and throw it up in the air to get the disc shape.  And I did give it an ever so small toss at one point.  But I know myself well enough to know it would have ended up on the floor at some point, so I settled for flattening the ball and just holding the edges like a steering wheel and working it around and around until I got a pizza shape.  It had a "rustic" look--and that is a fancy way of saying I couldn't get a perfect circle to save my life.  I don't care though, it turned out very tasty!

The sauce consisted of one 15 ounce can of tomato sauce, 1/4 cup of tomato paste, a tablespoon of italian seasoning, 2 tablespoons of brown sugar, and a teaspoon of garlic powder (a quick recipe from The Stocked Kitchen).  I made the sauce while I was waiting for the dough to rise, and then put the mixture in the fridge until I was ready to use it.   After the dough was ready I covered it with sauce, then shredded mozzarella and some diced ham, threw it in a preheated 425 degree oven, and super was made!

I do not recommend the Airbake baking sheet to cook pizza on.  I don't own a pizza pan so the Airbake was all I had.  The crust bakes unevenly and the bottom will not crisp without burning the outer crust and cheese.  It was still a tasty meal and has given me the confidence to tackle bread again.  I shall attempt white loaf bread before the weekend is over!