Receta Ultimate Homemade Pizza
When I graduated from high school my kindergarten teacher gave me the book All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. I guess it is true. What I have no doubts about being true is the fact that Shawnda at Confections of Foodie Bride has taught me everything I need to know about making pizza at home.
There is absolutely no beating this crust. I’ve never made anything this good at home. I’ve never eaten anything this good in a restaurant. (remember I live in rural America so I don’t have toooo many options). I will never crave pizza again from places other than my own kitchen. My mind was blown. I don’t say that lightly.
The technique, I am sure, is the ticket here. So if you have a favorite crust, go ahead and use it, but I used the recipe in Shawnda’s blog and I’m not changing it for nothin’. Nothin’!
I was scared – not to heat my oven to 550 degrees. That makes perfect sense. I was scared to turn my oven OFF when I put the pizza in and then put the broiler on high. That just didn’t seem right. I trusted Shawnda, though, and I am SO FREAKING GLAD I did (I don’t get this excited about stuff so take it as a hint, please).
Also. Use fresh mozzarella. Not the Kraft block and not that shredded crap. And my favorite sauce? I can of diced tomatoes, strained, and mixed with 1 tablespoon italian seasoning. Simply delicious.
Please check out Shawnda’s full blog post for tons of additional tips, including how to get this crust started before work so that your just is easy and quick in the evening.
Homemade Pizza Crust (crust adapted from Gourmet, broiling technique from Bon Appetit)
Ingredients
- 2 pkgs (or 4 tsp) dry active yeast
- 2 tsp sugar
- 3 1/2 cups (17.5 oz) flour plus more for dusting
- 1 1/2 cups warm water
- 2 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 Tbsp olive oil
- Cornmeal, for dusting surface
Instructions
Place water and sugar in the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the dough hook.
Add yeast and wait ten minutes for it to proof (get frothy). If it doesn’t, begin again with new yeast.
Add the olive oil, salt, and flour.
Pulse the mixer on and off to get dough to come together without making a flour cloud.
Continue to mix on low until the dough comes together and mostly off the sides of the bowl.
Let the mixer run for 5-8 minutes to knead the dough completely. It should be smooth but slightly sticky.
Divide the dough in half on a floured surface and shape into a ball (each will weigh ~1 lb). Each ball makes 1 large pizza.
Lightly dust a plate with flour and place the balls of dough on top, seam-down.
Sprinkle the top with flour and cover loosely with plastic wrap. Let stand at room temperature for 1 hr, 15 minutes until doubled in bulk.
Place your pizza stone in the top 1/3 of the oven and preheat to 550, letting it hold at temperature for 30 minutes.
Prepare your toppings.
Very lightly flour your pizza peel (or turn a rimmed baking sheet upside down and use the bottom) and then add a couple generous pinches of cornmeal.
Gently stretch the dough into a round by holding one edge of the dough ball a couple of inches above my work surface and letting gravity do most of the work, moving my hands around the edge of the dough to stretch it.
Place the dough onto the prepared peel or pan.
Switch your oven from “bake” mode to “broil.” (If you get the option, select the “high” broil setting).
Gently shake the pizza from the peel/pan to the baking stone and broil for 5-7 minutes.
Remove the pizza from the oven and transfer it to a rack – the crust can get a little soggy if you put it directly onto a peel/cutting board/plate and just let it sit there.
Slice and serve.