Crisp, Chewy Pizza From Your Home Oven

I don't know about you, but I'm tired of friends telling me they're on a low carb diet. Boh-ring! That only makes me want to eat more bread and pasta. So here's a recipe from Peg, who makes her own pizza dough. (I'm too lazy.)

Pizza Dough (makes 4/10 inch or 2/18 inch pizzas)

2 cups warm water

1 tbsp yeast

1 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp olive oil (plus more for brushing if desired)

1 to 2 tsp kosher salt (depending on desired flavor)

5 cups unbleached flour, plus up to 1 cup more if needed

In bowl combine water, yeast, sugar oil and salt and let sit until foamy, about 10 minutes. By hand or using bread hook on mixer, stir in 5 cups flour and more as needed to make a soft dough—if using a mixer the dough will begin to clean the sides of the bowl. Transfer to lightly floured board and knead until smooth and not sticky (about 8 minutes if by hand). Divide into two or four equal portions depending on the size pizzas you want. At this point you can freeze some of the dough if desired. Just wrap in plastic and place in a freezer bag with label. Otherwise place balls away from each other on a well floured board or baking sheet. Sprinkle flour over the tops and cover with a kitchen towel or parchment paper and then cover with plastic wrap. Let rise until tripled; 2 or more hours depending on the temperature in your home. Using your fingers or a rolling pin if easier, stretch the dough to desired size, leaving the edge a bit thicker, and place on a sheet of parchment. Cover with a towel and let rise about 30 minutes before covering with desired toppings. During the last ½ hour to hour of this rising and preparation process, place a pizza stone on a rack in the bottom third of the oven and turn oven on to 500 degrees…this will heat up the oven and stone for a great crust. If you have a pizza peel, you can use it to transfer your completed pizza, on the parchment, to the stone (you’ll need to bake one at a time unless you have a convection oven). Otherwise, you can use a rimless baking sheet to make the transfer. If making larger size pizzas, it is easier to bake it on a pizza pan or baking sheet (with parchment underneath) until the pizza crust has firmed up at which point you can then transfer it directly to the stone to finish baking so that the crust will have the correct chew and crispness. The parchment under the dough makes the transferring much easier than just using cornmeal as in some recipes.

Toppings

Somewhat like good quality pasta, a good pizza crust does not need to be overwhelmed with sauce, or toppings in general. But the fun of pizza is personalizing it with the toppings. I’d say in general if you are going to use tomato sauce, not more than ½ cup per 10 inch pizza; and it should be thick. Cheese either grated or thinly sliced to cover sauce in a single layer; and then what ever toppings you choose. If you use fresh mozzarella, it helps to drain it for a while and use lightly as there is a lot of water that will escape the cheese during baking and affect your crust.

That said I always use fresh mozzarella, thinly sliced and placed on paper towels to drain a bit before topping pizza and the moisture hasn’t been a problem. But in general I think it is a good idea to drain any toppings that have a lot of juice in them so that the crust will maintain its integrity during baking. I’ve included pictures of a couple favorites I’ve made—Prosciutto and Caramelized Onion; and Roasted Zucchini, Roasted Garlic, and Olive. But plain old pepperoni was also delicious. It’s fun to experiment and most any veggie you can roast and any cheese or meat you like can be used.