Sunday, December 8, 2013

Weekend Cooking; Fresh pizza dough

I made pizza this weekend and it turned out fantastic.  The dough was triple light and airy because I rolled it out early and let it sit on the pizza stones in the oven for 3 hours while I went to another event.
When I came home and pulled the stones out of the oven to decorate the pizzas and let the oven heat up the dough was this puffy, airy mass.  I poured some red sauce on and set it in the middle of the table.

One of our little guests, Jackson, took a break from petting Sadie the rabbit to help me put topics on the pizza.  YES, mother, he washed his hands thoroughly before adding straight  cheese and a few tiny mini sausages to the kid's pie.  He liked helping so much he topped the adult pie as well with sautéed mushrooms, black olives, fresh spinach, and plenty of cheese!  I didn't want to seem like a dweeb as we made these pizzas but they were picture-worthy.  Thank you to Jackson for you pie decorating abilities.


Here is the dough recipe I used

Pizza dough 
adapted from Rodale's Basic Natural food's cookbook

2 cups warm water
2 T. local honey
2 full T. of yeast
3 T. vegetable oil
5-6 cups unbleached flour-can use a mix of white and whole wheat

In a large bowl combine warm water, honey, and yeast and let proof.  (Proofing means let it get active, it will be bubbly) Then add oil and enough flour to make a firm dough.  Turn dough onto floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic., adding flour as need.  Place dough in a well-oiled bowl, and turn over to coat.  Cover bowl with a damp warm towel and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.  

Punch down dough, knead briefly in bowl and let rise again. Then divide dough into two balls.  Form each ball into a flat circle and roll out into a circle. I use my Pampered Chef silicone mat for this and it makes it so easy to lift up the dough flip it and turn it over.  

We used most of the dough up last night but the rest is going to be turned into a calzone for tomorrow's lunch box main dish for Groovy Girl!  I'm off to create that with her now.  This holiday time make some dough and have an easy pizza party. I had all my ingredients prepped and in lidded containers so I could just whip them out and let Jackson go to town.  It made for a very easy entertaining trick.

 Have a holly jolly week!

This is loosely linked to Beth Fish Reads Weekend Cooking meme.  Click her link to find many other food-related posts.

3 comments:

Cecelia said...

Oh, that is an easy and fun way to eat and socialize! We usually have a yearly pizza-making competition in my friend group. It's always a hit.

Beth F said...

I love, love, love homemade pizza and what a great idea to have everything made early and ready to go.

Janssen said...

That pizza is GORGEOUS!