Pizza time with home made dough

Been at it again with that bread machine of mine. But for the first time instead of making bread, tried to make some pizza dough with it. The ingredients were as basic as it gets and it’s half the time involved. Step on board and I’ll show you how easy and delicious this kind of pizza making can be. Your toppings are all you have to add with some home made or store bought sauce. Either way, it’s a have it your way kinda day. No, that wasn’t suppose to rhyme. But talk about simple.

PIZZA DOUGH:

1 cup of water plus two tablespoons (I use room temp milk)

1 1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 tablespoon olive oil

3 cups bread flour

2 tablespoons powdered milk (I use 1 cup milk in place of water and skip this :)

2 1/4 teaspoons yeast

Place in bread machine in order of your machine’s instructions. Mine is in the order above. Place on dough cycle, which on mine is 90 minutes long. Pre heat oven to 400˚.

It is surprisingly quite springy….no pun from yesterday, but it was very malleable. Gives you visions of being in Italy or New York’s Italian districts where they throw and swing the dough. Like a child riding a bike for the first time without her training wheels, it was not pretty! Had to do it! And it was fun, it is a great way to get the dough stretched! I am going to get better at this part for sure.

After stretching the dough out and moving it into place for about 5 minutes you can then begin your creation.

Place your favorite toppings on after some sauce is spread evenly over dough. I made home made sauce with onions, mushrooms, garlic, etc but if you are short on time there are some good brands on the market you just might want to thicken them up a bit. The sauce can get too runny if it’s not thick enough. A little tomato paste added to your sauce will do the trick if needed.

There are so many ways to top a pizza that you could write a book about it, but staying on the path of healthy I do love mushrooms, peppers,

onions, olives, any vegetable that you can eat raw so that you are not cooking the vitamins out of it. As you can see by my pizza, my girlfriends Karin and Robin “requested” pepperoni, so I added them as well on the bottom first. Order is important, if you add the meat on top of the veggies (whose size and shapes are all over the map), the meat tends to burn and it’s just bumpy. So, try to place your meat on first. Other than that, pile away and top with your favorite cheeses. Mozzarella is the classic, but goat cheese is also fun in combination with other cheeses.

Once you have completed your masterpiece, place in a 400˚ oven for 20-25 minutes or until all of your cheesy goodness has melted but make sure not to burn.

I placed mine on a bakers  stone with some cornmeal sprinkled down first. My recommendation is to place your pizza dough on the stone before piling on your ingredients. The pizza gets a little heavy to transplant after you have weighed it down so much with all that goodness.

When your pizza is done and the cheeses are nicely melted, slide it onto a cutting board and slice away. Best served with a home grown salad of sprouts, carrots and just about anything that didn’t make it onto the pizza. Won’t even tell you what we made for dessert! But you get the idea.

This is a dinner made for the movie “Big Night” and if you have a little Rosemary Clooney music hanging around the house, turn it up!

Ay Mambo! Wore my Napa Apron and threw a whole bunch of flour over my shoulder……just because I can!! Who Ha!

Bon Appétit!