Pizza

I have spoken to many people who say that homemade pizza is better than most pizza that you get in restaurants. I was doubtful but now I am a believer. So much so, that we have not even been to my favorite pizza place in months. My first experiment with pizza went poorly. I bought Trader Joe's prepared pizza dough, but I must not have followed the directions properly. The dough was sticky and did not rise. I had invested in an expensive stone and peel and was worried that they would sit on a shelf collecting dust! They did for a few months but then the March issue of Saveur magazine inspired me. It was devoted to pizza and their dough recipe worked perfectly. It was provided to the magazine from a famous pizzeria in Hollywood called Pizzeria Mozza. The original recipe is for four 10 inch pizzas. I initially made half the dough and made two pizzas with it. The crust was too thick for my taste so the next time I made pizza, I used one fourth the amount of dough and rolled it out very thin. This worked well for me. Here is the recipe:

The following makes enough dough for six very very thin crust 10 inch pizzas. I guess you could make 4 slightly thicker pizzas. This may still be too thin for some.

Crust:

1 teaspoon olive oil

1 teaspoon active dry yeast (I used the fast rising active yeast from Trader Joe's)

1 teaspoon sugar

1/3 teaspoon salt

2/3 cup 115 degree F water (I did measure this)

2 cups all purpose flour (I use unbleached)

I used a stand mixer. In a stand mixer bowl combine oil, yeast, sugar and water. Swirl. Let sit until foamy, about 10-12 minutes.

Attach to stand mixer with paddle attachment. Slowly add flour in increments while mixing on setting two. When you add more flour, scrape down sides. In about 8 minutes, it will form a ball. Remove this ball, loosely cover in plastic wrap and place mixing bowl in oven with oven light on. I leave in oven for about 3 hours until dough is soft and has tripled in size.

Making pizza:

Preheat oven to 500 degrees F for an hour prior to making pizza (I use an all clad pizza stone and am very happy with it) to heat stone.

I divide the above dough into six portions. I use a kitchen scale to make sure that the portions are equal. At this point I freeze the dough that I will not be using individually tightly wrapped in saran wrap. I dust parchment paper with flour (lightly), flatten dough into a disk, and then roll it out with a rolling pin. It does take some work to roll out thin, because the dough oven springs back. Once I have rolled it out, I brush it generously with olive oil. It is more important to brush the edges really well. This is key for a yummy crust. I then sprinkle the pizza with Kosher salt (just a little.) Now comes my secret ingredient... Sukhi's Jalapeno chutney. I buy it at Mountain View Farmer's market. I spoon about one tablespoon of this onto the pizza, and then spoon on two tablespoons for Trader Joe's marinara sauce. I then top with Trader Joe's shredded organic mozzarella cheese (this is better for pizza then their fresh mozzarella.) I then use the peel to transfer the parchment paper to the stone. Bake for about 4 minutes but watch closely. Remove, cool briefly and devour!