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Get pizza stone or tiles (per Dr J) Put them on the BOTTOM rack of the oven (not per Dr J–there’s more than enough heat at the bottom to melt the cheese, but you want the crust as close to the heat source as possible)
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Make Pizza–
Dough recipe makes about 3 12" pizzas and can be frozen
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
3 1/4 cups white flour
1 package (about 2 teaspoons) yeast
2 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons salt
3 teasppons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon fresh chopped rosemary
Dump the yeast and sugar into a mixing bowl with about 1/3d cup very warm water (about 100 degrees F). Stir and let it get bubbly.
Dump the wheat flour in and mix. Add the olive oil. Mix. Add about 1 cup of ice-cold water (yes. Ice-cold water. It’ll make the crust take forever to rise and will make the crust taste delicious.) Add the rest of the ingredients. Mix. Add more water if needed. Knead for about 10 minutes. Roll dough into ball and smear lightly with olive oil and place in bowl. Place bowl on counter or someplace room temperature. Cover bowl with towel and let rise until doubled, which, as noted before, will take at least 3 hours, probably four. Drink several beers.
When the dough’s risen, turn the oven on as high as it’ll go.
Cut the into 3 pieces. Freeze the other two individually (let 'em thaw in the fridge for about 8 hours when you intend to use 'em) Roll remaing dough into a ball and let sit for about 10 minutes. Roll it into a circle on your peel or on the back of a large baking sheet (that have been sprinkled with flour) until it’s about 1/4th of an inch thick. If it’s too rubbery and keeps shrinking, let it sit about 10 minutes and try again.
Once it’s about 12 inches around (leave a rim around the edge!) and about 1/4 inch thick (or less), take a dab of olive oil (less than 1/4 teaspoon) and gently smear it all over the top of the pizza crust (it’ll prevent the sauce from sinking in and making the crust soggy). Spread your tomato sauce (make home-made or use jarred spaghetti sauce (Bertolli/4 Brothers is a good brand, IMO) Canned sauce just tastes weird to me…I think it’s the metal) thinly on the crust, you don’t want to use more than a 1/4 of a cup, if that. Put slices of mozzerella cheese (make sure it’s “real” mozzerella cheese, not “processeed cheez flavored foodstuff”–best bet is to go to the deli in your supermarket and ask for about 1/4th pound of sliced mozzerella). Add other ingredients–be careful of mushrooms, tomatoes and pineapple as they give off liquid when cooked and can make things soggy.
Once the pizza’s topped, let it sit for about 5-10 minutes more if you like a chewier crust or don’t if you want a crisper crust. Slide the pizza onto your pizza stone, wait 8-10 minutes and pull it out. Let it rest on the counter for about 3-5 minutes (so that all the molten cheese doesn’t just run off–it’s gotta congeal a bit) and devour!
Fenris