Wednesday, February 4, 2009

about the pizza dough

Making pizza dough in the food processor is amazingly simple and fast. You will never have to buy pizza dough at Trader Joe's again. Here's how: With the steel blade in place, whiz together 1 cup of flour, 3/4 t. sugar and 1 1/2 t. yeast. Then, while the machine is running, pour 1 cup of hot water down the tube. You will have a runny mixture as above.
Next, dump in 2 more cups of flour, 3/4 t. salt, and 3 T. olive oil. Run the machine until the dough forms into a ball. Then dump it into a bowl (I oil the bowl first), cover with a towel and let rise. It only takes 30 minutes!
Rainer looking cute while the dough rises in the background.
Here's how it looks after 30 minutes.
Roll it out and fit it into a pizza pan. I have this neat pan my mom bought me. It has holes all over the bottom, thus making the pizza a little more crunchy. I don't have a pizza stone, so this pan is a nice alternative (and I find it less clutter inducing than a stone, which seems like it might be hard to store . . .) Apply your toppings and bake at 450 as long as it takes. You want it to be all golden around the edge. Check after 10 minutes. That's it!

Now I really need some suggestions from you for creative pizza toppings. I'm in a rut. What do you put on your homemade pizzas? I really need to branch out from pesto and cheese or bbq chicken.

25 comments:

Teddi Taylor said...

Mmmm... I love to make homemade pizza. We have started a Sunday evening pizza tradition. My favorite is margarita pizza... tomato sauce, fresh basil and mozzarella. Also we love buffalo chicken pizza with a buffalo sauce made of ranch, caesar dressing and hot sauce for both the sauce and on the chicken and carmelized onions and red peppers.

Anonymous said...

ARTICHOKES!

Mozi Esme said...

Yummy! We started making pizza dough in our bread machine in Mozambique since there was no carryout available - it's wonderful...

Anonymous said...

I make pizza very often. On the top I put always tomato puree and then ham+canned sweetcorn or olives and grated cheese or the other possibility I make is canned tuna+onions+olives+blue cheese. The above mentioned Margarita with mozzarella is also my favourite ;o)

Anonymous said...

We love homemade pizza. I do a cheeseburger pizza. I mix equal parts of mayo, ketchup and mustard for the sauce and top with ground burger (cooked) and cheddar cheese.

I also like just topping the pizza crust with butter and garlic and cutting it into strips and dipping in marinara sauce like breadsticks.

sarah said...

We love making pizza at home!
My girls always like pepperoni.
I like pesto, artichoke hearts and spinach. My husband has been on a
pineapple, bacon, jalapeno kick:)

Hannah said...

We have the same kind of pizza pan for the same reason! Our pizza topping of choice at the moment is anchovies and peppers - on top of the cheese - then parmesan on top of that. We add pesto to the sauce and sometimes a drop of white wine.

Sarah and Jack said...

I've not made it in a long time, but I always used to do: olive oil, mozzarella, chopped up fresh spinach, mushrooms and red onion. (No tomato sauce).

katie said...

pineapples!

ames said...

Nothing beats homemade pizza for using up leftovers! I love using onions, black olives, and deli ham or turkey with a drizzle of sauce like BBQ or honey mustard. I've also been known to use bacon, mashed potatoes, pine nuts, and tossed salad with ranch dressing!

Anonymous said...

I made pizza last night with sausage and goat cheese on top. YUM! Thanks for the dough recipe!

Anonymous said...

Cherry tomoatoes and basil are a favourite around here. Also sweetcorn and peppers. Thanks for the pizza dough recipe!

Katherine said...

I'll have to try this method next time! We love homemade pizzas.
My favorite is a thin layer of tomato sauce, topped with crumbled goat cheese and sauteed red/yellow/orange peppers and onions. Yum.
A white sauce topped with a bit of ranch dressing, shredded cheese, bacon, onions and chicken is great too.

Anonymous said...

Our family favorite is sliced mushrooms, black olives, green pepper and onions (one day I will try to make carmelized onions!)...but my boys have recently been hooked on Canadian bacon with chedder and mozz. cheese.
I have a very similar food processing recipe, btw! Love it. Besides, where we live there is no delivery.
Love your blog!

Chris said...

I use a similar dough recipe, but without the food processor, so it is a bit more work - that sounds like a great shortcut. we usually have shredded carrots or zucchini as well as broccoli and corn so that the kiddo gets in some veggies. (we can't even eat pizza out because he will insist on a broccoli-corn pizza! and of course, ketchup to dip it in - must be a european thing.)

Amanda said...

Oh I love homemade pizza! I love artichoke hearts, mushrooms, and olives. So so good.

Jessica said...

Normally I make my pizza dough in the kitchenaid, but I think I'll try this out next time I make dough. I always like broccoli on my pizza!

eight feet said...

It's almost midnight but these comments are making me hungry! We like to saute thinly sliced potatoes in olive oil with rosemary and garlic. Top the dough with pesto, the potatoes and parmesan cheese. Another favorite is topped with garlic mashed red potatoes, broccoli, tomatoes, cheddar cheese, and hickory smoked bacon.

Ali said...

We like to use salsa as the "sauce" then cooked chicken and topped off with chedder cheese, sometimes I add black beans to it too. We also like to have an olive oil and garlic base with cooked chicken,artichokes, feta cheese, onions, black olives and a little motz cheese. Oh, I could go on and on. . . pierogi pizza, cheeseburger pizza, philly steak pizza, taco pizza. . .we also take our pizza shells and turn them into delish sandwhichs called Wedges. . . mmmmmm

Ashley Ann said...

One delicious option is artichoke hearts, bacon, and chicken. Mmmm! Garlicy alfredo type sauce tastes the most delicious.

That's the only thing I can think of that's not bbq chicken. I love that too! Thanks for the dough recipe. I'm starring it to try for later!

Anonymous said...

hi there we have fresh garlic and olive oil, topped with cheese
also we have baked veggies with fetta cheese

Anonymous said...

I realize that this post is a bit old now and you may no longer need pizza suggestions, but I have to share my suggestion anyway because we made the best pizza a few weeks ago. Carmelized onions, parmesan (freshly grated) garlic, fresh basil and italian ham. It was well and truly amazing.

Emily with an M said...

Mary Beth- I used this recipe last night and it turned out soooo well! I'm going to toss out my old pizza dough recipe. This is sooo simple! Thank you for sharing it here. We made a pesto + red sauce + cheddar cheese + some chopped up string cheese pizza. My daughter totally dislikes string cheese suddenly and I've got about 20 strings to go through! :) Have a great weekend and thanks again. It was perfect.

Jodz said...

I had saved this when I saw it on your blog. I'm so glad I did. The other night was homemade pizza night and I had forgotten to make the dough. I made this recipe and it was great and so quick. I will be using this recipe from now on.

Alicia said...

I printed this months ago but only got around to making it last night. OMG. This is the best pizza dough and I couldn't believe how easy it was to make. I think we're going to make Sunday night our pizza night and will use this crust every week! Can't wait to try new toppings and experiment with herbs in the crust, etc. How fun!

Thank you so much for sharing this!