Friday, October 1, 2010

Making pizza, part 1...

I decided instead of just telling y'all the recipe, I'd show it to you as well, so I set out to fix up a pizza for lunch. This recipe makes a small, very rustic-style pizza, nothing like the crap you get at your local pizza hut. One of these guys makes for a modest dinner for one, but the recipe is easily doubled.

First, the ingredients:
-Flour, unbleached, all-purpose
-Instant yeast
-Sugar
-Salt
-Olive oil

Now, the equipment:
-A mixing bowl (medium for a single batch, large for a double batch)
-A sturdy mixing spoon
-And somethin' to bake on. I've gotten decent results doin' the whole thing on my cheap-o pizza pan, but, the best ones I've made were started on a pan, moved to a baking stone, then finished on the oven rack.

Now, the recipe:
4 ounces (by weight!) unbleached, all-purpose flour (approx. 3/4 cup plus 1 tbsp. by volume. if you have a scale, USE IT! you know how to mesure flour by volume, right? dip and sweep, dip and sweep...)
1/2 tsp. each of your yeast, sugar, and salt
2.75 ounces (by weight, again) slightly warm water (1/3 liquid cup by volume)

Add your dry ingredients and give them a little mix to get it all incorporated, then make a little 'well' in your bowl and pour your water in, like so:
Now gradually stir the flour in... This is where practice makes perfect, it might be a little troublesome to get your dough together the first few times, but if it looks a little dry and crumbly, buckle down and stir the dickens out of it. This is why I told you to use a sturdy spoon! You can add a teensy bit of water if you need to. your dough should turn out somethin' like this:

Shaggy, sticky, unappetizing. Perfect. Scrap the dough off your spoon with a knife if you need to. And you will need to.

Next, drizzle in a bit of olive oil (about a tablespoon, I never measure...) next to your dough, and use your spoon to coat the dough ball in the oil. Like-a this:
Now it's shaggy, sticky, unappetizing, and OILY. Cover your bowl with foul, plastic wrap, whatever, and let that guy sit for one hour.

Yes, a whole hour. I never said it'd be fast. I'll be back later in the day to wrap this one up for y'all :3

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