Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Make Your Own Pizza



We LOVE pizza, especially homemade pizza. I have a good recipe for the dough that makes in my breadmaker. Well, it makes up to the "roll it out" stage. This dough recipe uses a cup of beer for the liquid which gives the dough an especially "yeasty" flavour that is really delicioius! It can be flat so you can save a cup of beer in the fridge for awhile, planning to make your own pizza dough.
You can put as much cheese as you want on your own pizza. You can put whatever toppings you like and as much of them as you want, on your own pizza. It is more trouble than buying delivered pizza but it is a LOT cheaper. It is more trouble than buying a frozen pizza from the grocery store, but it is a LOT better.
You don't have to use a breadmaker for this, its just easier. I let the dough mix and knead in the breadmaker. If you are using a breadmaker for this and are putting the ingredients in early in the morning to mix and knead later, or even the day before, it is important that the ingredients be put into your breadmaker in this order. This keeps the yeast away from the liquid, salt and sugar until it is ready to mix.

This is the pizza dough recipe we use:

1 cup beer or water (Use beer. It makes delicious crust!)
1 tablespoon shortening
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 3/4 cups all purpose flour in Canada
or 3 cups bread flour in the US (I have no idea?? - anyone??)
1 1/4 teaspoon yeast
Put all ingredients into machine in the above order. Put machine on "dough/pasta" setting. When cycle is complete, remove dough and roll out to fit bottom of pan.

This recipe makes one extra large pizza or two small pizzas. I always make one extra large one.

I have a pizza stone, but I bake this in a pizza pan with bacon grease in the bottom. You can put melted butter in it instead, for a crispy crust, but we like it in bacon grease. I know, bacon grease is not healthy. Pizza is not "healthy". If you are eating pizza, with cheese and sausage anyway, you might as well add the bacon grease too. Walk it off :-)

While the dough is kneading in the machine, you can be gathering and chopping all the toppings. We use grated mozarella cheese, green peppers, onions, mushrooms, tomatoes, bacon and sausage (no pepperoni).


I dry the very thin tomato slices between paper towel so they don't add more water to the pizza and I like to cook the onions and peppers in the bacon grease slightly so they are not crunchy on the pizza.

I used Italian sausage for this pizza because that is what I had, slicing them thinly before putting on the pizza. These were left over from two days ago. I prefer spicy breakfast sausage, myself. Because this is mild Italian sausage, I sprinkled a little black pepper on it before baking and some thyme, as well. I like to add thyme to everything I cook because of its antibacterial properties.



I love Hawaiian pizza with bacon, mushroom, pineapple, ham and COCONUT on it. Delicious!!

After the dough gets rolled out and put into the pan, I add the sauce. Spread it out over the dough, leaving an edge around the outside that is uncovered. After the sauce is spread on, add about 3/4 of the grated cheese.

Be careful not to overload the center of the pizza with cheese and toppings or it will take too long to bake, not getting done before the bottom is too brown. Most of the cheese and toppings go aroung the outside of the center, leaving the outside edge clear, as with the sauce.

After the cheese, I add the other toppings evenly spread over the pizza, topping it all off with the rest of the grated cheese and a little finely grated parmesan.

The pizza needs to be baked at exactly 400 degrees F. Your stove should be calibrated so you can be sure of the temperature. At least put in a stove thermometer and see if it is off. That way you can adjust the setting to get exactly the temperature you need.

Bake the pizza for exactly 20 minutes. One minute longer and the bottom will be a bit too dark. If you don't bake it long enough, the center will not be completely cooked and will be soggy.

After the pizza has baked for 12 minutes, put a ring around the outside crust area. We use this one that hubby made many years ago from another flat pizza pan. An aluminum foil collar will also work.






Remove pizza from the oven when the 20 minutes is up. If the center is soggy and not well done, you can turn the oven to broil and put the pizza in to broil for another few minutes. Leave the oven door open to prevent further baking of the bottom of the crust while broiling the top.

Remove the ring around the ege and let it cool a bit before you cut and eat it.

This crust is fabulous, especially made with the beer and not overdone. Watch the time and temp closely. It is easy to overcook the bottom.

I suppose one could freeze the other half of the bottle of beer in another container for use at a later date or make another batch of pizza dough and freeze it (if one doesn't drink beer, that is).



7 comments:

The JR said...

Yummy looking pizza. Love the idea of using a bread maker. Mine needs more use.

Never seen one of those pizza pans before. Will have to be on the look for one.

Thanks for the recipe.

Clayton said...

Great illustrations Sheryl. We never seem to make pizza here and I think the crust is probably the issue. I will send your seeds right after Christmas. I am working at Lee Valley Tools till then and the days are full! I have the heads threshed but needs cleaning. I still have Hollyhocks and Lavatera to thresh. Blessings for Christmas.

Sheryl at Providence North said...

No problem, Clayton. No hurry. I am not planting until around April.

I cannot remember where we got this pizza pan. We have had it for years but I think Walmart might carry them. I have also seen them at the kitchen stores in the malls and occasionally at Costco.

the rural independent said...

You recipe looks great - will have to try it, as the bread machine gathers way too much dust.

One thing we like to do is bake our pizzas in our outdoor gas grill in the summer especially, as it keeps the heat out of the kitchen.

We cheat and use those pre-made flat doughs such as "Boboli" for the crust. Brush it with olive oil and crisp it on the grill on both sides. Bring it inside and assemble the pizza.

While assembling the pie, superheat the grill with the lid down.

Turn the burners directly below the pizza to low and crank up any others to high. Close the lid and peek after about 10 mins, monitor until golden brown and looking fine!

Sheryl at Providence North said...

I have heard that pizza is good done on the grill, but have not tried it. I might try pizza on the grill with my own crust this spring, or whenever it warms up a bit. (-17c last night).

Thanks for the idea!

Ovenbird said...

I make my own pizza sometimes, but I will try this crust recipe. When my daughter was in a picky stage, and Scooter would not change his ways, I took to going to the salad bar at the grocery store on pizza day. There I got small quantities of sliced green peppers, mushrooms, olives, pepperoni, ham, pineapple,tomatoes, etc. Then I made three small pizzas to each person's taste. Easier than slicing all of it up and no part packages of stuff left over.

Sheryl at Providence North said...

The salad bar at the grocery store is a good idea!