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home made pizza round 2!

So this time I wanted to try and make my own pizza dough. Something I've never done before. It wasn't terribly tough, but it was my first time trying to work with any dough before, so I think I can definitely do better with a bit of practise. But I think I'm on the right track. The pizza dough tasted pretty darn good.

I followed this recipe, so I won't repost the directions, just gonna post pics: http://www.recipezaar.com/The-Art-of-Making-the-Perfect-Pizza-Dough-236785

So first, I got the yeast going on:

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(mmm, the smell of yeast reminds me of beer!)

Just two mins later and the yeast has risen a lot already!

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Making the dough:

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Work area prepped:

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Dough all kneaded and made into two balls:

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Gotta clean up while the dough is rising or the wife won't be happy:

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Pizza #1 getting all stretched out after sitting and growing giant and poofy for an hour and a half. The stretching was a bit tricky... I woulda taken a pic of me doing it, but you need two hands for the pizza dough and one hand for the camera and I'm not that talented:

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And it almost fits my pizza sheet (which I've never used for pizza!):

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Ok, so at this point the baby needed some attention and the wife was out, so I was mildly handicapped. I had the oven at 550 and baked the pizza dough by itself (no toppings) for 5 mins. Then I put on my toppings and baked for about 8-10 mins only. 550 is hot.

The wife's pizza was ham, mushroom, red onion, red pepper, mozza, a touch of cheddar and some parmesan and there was a liberal amount of fresh basil added:

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My pizza was a little spicier but nothing beyond mild really. I used 3 tbsp of defcon 3 (defcon 3 is not hot but it sure is tasty) and 3 tbsp of my pizza sauce and mixed it with 2 finely chopped fresno's and a handful of fresh basil. Then it was topped with mushrooms, mexican salami, ham, red onion, red peppers, more fresno's (I used the last 4 I had on this pizza), olives, mozza, cheddar and parmesan and sprinkled with a little hab sea salt. Damn, that's a lot of toppings!

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Next time I am going to try to put some dried herbs into the dough itself. Maybe some dried peppers but my home grown supply is running very low.
 
That pizza looks as though i dreamt it up and you made it, any chance of a ten minute delivery to Australia???
 
Awesome..glad my link is being used to good effect. :D

Now if I ever get to the store for ingredients, I'll be getting into it too. My 9x5 toaster oven has a pan that's just perfect for "personal" size pizzas...and has much better heat control than my ancient stove. ;)
 
Wow, I'm impressed that you made your own crust. I hate messing with stuff like that. I buy my pie and pizza crusts pre-made.
 
Thanks everyone.

I wanted to make the crust because here, the pizza shells at the store cost ~$6 and while they are decent, they aren't great. This probably cost me a grand total of $0.50, maybe $0.75.

According to my wife, this was much better then boboli and the other brand of pizza shells we've used. I agree but I think it could be much better!

The oven needs to be hotter I think. I am going to try putting in a few foil wrapped bricks to keep the heat even in the oven when I open and close the door to put in/take out the pizza. I also think a little flavouring would really help the dough... fresh herbs or maybe just a sprinkle of salt on it. Also, I used whole wheat flour and it tasted pretty good.

This crust was very light, even after my clumsy hands had dropped it 15 times while stretching it. I can only imagine how good it would be if manipulated well. Everytime I dropped it I'm sure I knocked out a bunch of the air bubbles from the dough and I get the feeling those air bubbles are what makes the dough so good.

Quad - I stretched the dough really thin for my pizza's (my wife likes those almost cracker crust type of pizza's). I think if you took half the recipe it would make a perfect thickness crust for your toaster oven.
 
lostmind said:
Quad - I stretched the dough really thin for my pizza's (my wife likes those almost cracker crust type of pizza's). I think if you took half the recipe it would make a perfect thickness crust for your toaster oven.

Cool...yeah sounds like a plan to me.

Heh, I noticed ya have the same old classic Pyrex measuring thingy I do. Mines at least 45 yrs old, but looks like new still.

Those rock..heck ya can even boil water in 'em for tea. ;)
 
uhuhuhuhuhuhuhu he said balls.

Good looking pie for sure. I'm not much of a veggie guy when it comes to pizza though, shrooms and black olives maybe, otherwise I'm a carnivore.
 
Nice looking pie there LM! Extra kudos for making your own dough. Thats the only way I roll anymore. Pun intended. I like to make a crust somewhat between a cracker style and a New York thin crust. Done on a pizza stone is tres bon! Some pies I do are really simple...crust, olive oil, roasted garlic, roasted peppers. No cheese or meat is not a bad 'thang once in a while.

Cheers, TB.
 
texas blues said:
Nice looking pie there LM! Extra kudos for making your own dough. Thats the only way I roll anymore. Pun intended. I like to make a crust somewhat between a cracker style and a New York thin crust. Done on a pizza stone is tres bon! Some pies I do are really simple...crust, olive oil, roasted garlic, roasted peppers. No cheese or meat is not a bad 'thang once in a while.

Cheers, TB.

No meat?

:starts thumbing through offical mancard handbook:
 
patrick said:
I'm not much of a veggie guy when it comes to pizza though, shrooms and black olives maybe, otherwise I'm a carnivore.

You do realize chilies/peppers are veggies? ;)

Gotta have onions on a pie too, IMO.
 
patrick said:
I'm not much of a veggie guy when it comes to pizza though, shrooms and black olives maybe, otherwise I'm a carnivore.

You do realize chilies/peppers are veggies? ;)

Gotta have onions on a pie too, IMO.


*a balanced diet.. is a beer in each hand*
 
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