I need to use up some mozzarella and was thinking about making a pizza tonight. A Google search for “pizza dough” turns up almost 900,000 hits. I want something tried and true—and EASY—so I thought I’d ask you lovely Bonny Glen readers. You’ve never steered me wrong before! Got a favorite recipe?
Here’s the recipe my Mom has always used – and I use it too.
1 cup warm water
1/2 pkg (1 teaspoon) yeast
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoon’s oil
2 3/4 to 3 1/4 cup flour
Stir ingredients together (start with less flour and use more if you need it as you knead). Knead on floured surface. Let rise at least 1 hour (in bowl with little oil on bottom – flip dough so top is slightly oily too). Spread dough out on lightly oiled sheet (I use a pizza stone instead and spread the dough on a floured board and then slide it onto the pre-heated stone). Oven must be preheated for good crust. 425 degrees.
She calls for adding a couple of tablespoons of ground flax seed, which adds such a nice flavor.
I substitute 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour for some of the white, just for a little more flavor. That little doesn’t seem to ruin the texture. I also use a little less water than she does. I mix it in my Kitchen Aid mixer instead of by hand and it works very well for us.
Paula Dean from food network has a recipe that works every time..not as authentically Italian as we in the Northeast are used to, but it is easy to make and easy to use!
3 cups good flour (I use 50/50 whole wheat/white bread flour, milled from a local farm)
4 teaspoons baking powder
abt. 1/2 tsp of salt
1 cup milk (I use soy)
6 TBS vegetable oil
Use a fork to mix it, then knead gently (10-12 strokes). Roll out to fit a greased pizza pan. Rolled fairly thin, this makes a good large sized pizza. Once you’ve topped it with sauce and goodies, bake for 15 minutes or so in a preheated 425 degree oven.
This is slightly adapted from the Super Baby Food cookbook (which has lots more than baby food recipes, obviously!)
Christine’s looks good, and mine is similar but doesn’t require raising. It makes a very thick crust.
1 1/2 cups water
1 tablespoon (or one packet) of yeast
2 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons oil
1/4 teaspoon of salt
3-4 cups of flour
Proof the yeast, add the rest of the ingredients and mix. Knead until combined, spread out on the pizza stone. Add toppings, put into a COOL oven, cook at 375* for 20-25 minutes.
King Arthur Flour recipe is the best. We’ve used it for years and years. It is amazingly delicious when cooked on the grill! Whichever recipe you use, be sure to use quality olive oil.
I’m not sure if you have a stand mixer, but I use the recipe from the Kitchen Aid manual. It’s easy and quick and we have it often.
1 pkge (2 1/4 tsp) yeast
1 cup warm water
1/2 t salt
2 tsp olive oil
2.5-3.5 cups flour
1 T cornmeal
Dissolve yeast in warm water in mixer bowl. Add salt, olive oil, and 2.5 cups flour. Using dough hook, mix 1 minute on speed 2 (low).
Add 1/2 cup flour at a time mixing on speed 2 until dough clings to hook and cleans sides. Knead on speed 2 for 2 minutes longer.
Place in greased bowl, cover and let rise about 1 hour. If it place it in the oven after leaving it on warm for about 2 minutes, it rises in 45 minutes. Punch down and spread on greased pan sprinkled with cornmeal.
Bake 7-10 minutes at 450F. Remove, add toppings and bake 10 minutes more.
I see you have plenty, but here’s our super easy one:
1 Tbs. yeast
1 c. lukewarm water
1 Tbs. oil
1 tsp. salt
2 3/4 c. flour (I use part whole wheat)
Soften yeast in the water, then add oil, salt and half the flour. Gradually add the remaining flour till you have a soft dough. Knead till smooth and elastic, about 10 min. Rise until double in bulk (it says 1 1/2 hours, but mine never takes that long). Makes 2 13″ rounds, or I usually just put the whole thing in my big rectangle pan. Bake at 425 for 10-15 min.
Easiest sauce ever… we use Del Monte petit diced tomatos with garlic and olive oil (yep, that’s all on the can!) straight out of the can! We scoop the chunky tomato bits out and fill in the other areas with the juicy sauce left in the can.
It turns out a little on the sweet side, so if you like savory this may not be for you!
Lissa, months late, but just adding my two cents about pizza dough. Since moving to the boonies 15 years ago, in the country and away from NYC, I found the only way to get good pizza was to make it myself. For the first few years I looked for a good dough recipe, but stopped when I came across the one in Frances Mayes’ “Under the Tuscan Sun”. It’s the one we use all the time, and I like the idea that it came from somewhere under the Tuscan sun! After all this time, I’m not sure if the recipe below is exactly as it is in the book or if I’ve adapted it a bit : ).
Dissolve 1 pkg (1 tbsp) yeast and 1 tsp. sugar in 1/2 cup warm water. Let bubble.
In large bowl, mix 3-1/4 cups flour, 1/2 tsp. sea salt, 3 tbsp. olive oil, 3/4 cup water. Add yeast mixture. Let rise anywhere from half an hour to several hours. Recipe can easily be doubled.
Best baked at about 450 degrees for about 15 minutes, or on the bbq, which is our new favorite place to make pizza, even in the winter.
“Exploration,” says John Stilgoe, author of Outside Lies Magic, “is a liberal art, because it is an art that liberates, that frees, that opens away from narrowness. And it is fun.”
Yes: it is so, so much fun, and that is why I write these posts all chattery with excitement over this or that connection the kids made today. (Or that I made myself!) I know I get carried away, but that’s the point, isn’t it, that way leading on to way has carried me away?
And yet—and yet—I think we are at once ‘carried away’ and made more fully present in the now, more rooted, by these relationships between ideas about things past and future. The joy of connection makes me want to celebrate this moment, this brief encounter with wild-haired child and broad-trunked tree, bus going by, sign on church wall, Scottish warlord creeping over the tower wall and startling the English soldier’s wife who has just put her babe in arms to sleep by crooning that the Black Douglas won’t get him. Child, laughing, shouting “Dinna ye be sae sure aboot that!” across the courtyard outside the library. How can I not celebrate this freedom?
Every day is complicated, messy, and full of friction. And every day has glorious or cozy moments worth celebrating. I seldom bother to chronicle the friction and the mess because writing time is fleeting and precious—and childhood even more so. I’d rather capture the small joys that I might forget—or take for granted—if I don’t take time to set them down in words.
(Excerpt from this post about Real Life, quoted here because I don't want anyone to be under the impression that things are always perfect around here! Heaven knows we are anything but. Perfect, frictionless, orderly? Nope. Happy? Most of the time!)
Be like the bird
Who, pausing in flight
On limb too slight,
Feels it give way beneath her,
Yet sings,
Knowing she has wings.
I don’t have one of my own, but my blogging buddy does: http://blessusolord.blogspot.com/2009/03/saturday-night-pizza.html
She makes it looks easy!
Posted on April 6th, 2009 at 10:17 amHere’s the recipe my Mom has always used – and I use it too.
1 cup warm water
1/2 pkg (1 teaspoon) yeast
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoon’s oil
2 3/4 to 3 1/4 cup flour
Stir ingredients together (start with less flour and use more if you need it as you knead). Knead on floured surface. Let rise at least 1 hour (in bowl with little oil on bottom – flip dough so top is slightly oily too). Spread dough out on lightly oiled sheet (I use a pizza stone instead and spread the dough on a floured board and then slide it onto the pre-heated stone). Oven must be preheated for good crust. 425 degrees.
Hope this helps
Posted on April 6th, 2009 at 10:23 amI love Mrs. Darwin’s recipe for pizza dough. We used it just this past Friday and I had the last piece for lunch today.
She calls for adding a couple of tablespoons of ground flax seed, which adds such a nice flavor.
I substitute 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour for some of the white, just for a little more flavor. That little doesn’t seem to ruin the texture. I also use a little less water than she does. I mix it in my Kitchen Aid mixer instead of by hand and it works very well for us.
I posted pictures on my cooking blog.
Posted on April 6th, 2009 at 11:12 amThe one from Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day.
Here’s a link to the recipe on-line.(unless you are using kosher salt, only use 1 tbsp for a full recipe).
http://steamykitchen.com/blog/2008/02/19/no-knead-pizza-dough-pear-and-gorgonzola-flatbread-with-baby-arugula-and-shaved-parmesan
Enjoy!
Posted on April 6th, 2009 at 11:14 amPaula Dean from food network has a recipe that works every time..not as authentically Italian as we in the Northeast are used to, but it is easy to make and easy to use!
Posted on April 6th, 2009 at 11:14 amMy favorite quick (no rise) pizza dough:
3 cups good flour (I use 50/50 whole wheat/white bread flour, milled from a local farm)
4 teaspoons baking powder
abt. 1/2 tsp of salt
1 cup milk (I use soy)
6 TBS vegetable oil
Use a fork to mix it, then knead gently (10-12 strokes). Roll out to fit a greased pizza pan. Rolled fairly thin, this makes a good large sized pizza. Once you’ve topped it with sauce and goodies, bake for 15 minutes or so in a preheated 425 degree oven.
This is slightly adapted from the Super Baby Food cookbook (which has lots more than baby food recipes, obviously!)
Posted on April 6th, 2009 at 11:27 amChristine’s looks good, and mine is similar but doesn’t require raising. It makes a very thick crust.
1 1/2 cups water
1 tablespoon (or one packet) of yeast
2 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons oil
1/4 teaspoon of salt
3-4 cups of flour
Proof the yeast, add the rest of the ingredients and mix. Knead until combined, spread out on the pizza stone. Add toppings, put into a COOL oven, cook at 375* for 20-25 minutes.
Posted on April 6th, 2009 at 11:30 amKing Arthur Flour recipe is the best. We’ve used it for years and years. It is amazingly delicious when cooked on the grill! Whichever recipe you use, be sure to use quality olive oil.
Posted on April 6th, 2009 at 11:48 amI’m not sure if you have a stand mixer, but I use the recipe from the Kitchen Aid manual. It’s easy and quick and we have it often.
1 pkge (2 1/4 tsp) yeast
1 cup warm water
1/2 t salt
2 tsp olive oil
2.5-3.5 cups flour
1 T cornmeal
Dissolve yeast in warm water in mixer bowl. Add salt, olive oil, and 2.5 cups flour. Using dough hook, mix 1 minute on speed 2 (low).
Add 1/2 cup flour at a time mixing on speed 2 until dough clings to hook and cleans sides. Knead on speed 2 for 2 minutes longer.
Place in greased bowl, cover and let rise about 1 hour. If it place it in the oven after leaving it on warm for about 2 minutes, it rises in 45 minutes. Punch down and spread on greased pan sprinkled with cornmeal.
Bake 7-10 minutes at 450F. Remove, add toppings and bake 10 minutes more.
Posted on April 6th, 2009 at 1:09 pmI see you have plenty, but here’s our super easy one:
1 Tbs. yeast
1 c. lukewarm water
1 Tbs. oil
1 tsp. salt
2 3/4 c. flour (I use part whole wheat)
Soften yeast in the water, then add oil, salt and half the flour. Gradually add the remaining flour till you have a soft dough. Knead till smooth and elastic, about 10 min. Rise until double in bulk (it says 1 1/2 hours, but mine never takes that long). Makes 2 13″ rounds, or I usually just put the whole thing in my big rectangle pan. Bake at 425 for 10-15 min.
Posted on April 6th, 2009 at 1:35 pmSuper simple to make quickly.
Mix
1 pkg. yeast
1 cup warm water
Add 2 tbs. olive oil
1 tsp. sugar
pinch of salt
Approximately 2 and a half cups flour.
Knead to doughy but not too sticky.
Let sit for 5 minutes.
Bake at 425 for 10 minutes.
Posted on April 6th, 2009 at 5:45 pmMakes 2 delicious pizzas, especially if you add a little garlic salt with parsley sprinkled onto the sauce.
Thanks so much, everyone! Sooner or later we will have to try them all.
The one we made tonight was a big hit. Mmm, pizza…
Posted on April 6th, 2009 at 7:17 pmNow my big question–what makes a tasty sauce on the pizza? i don’t like the jarred pizza sauces.
Posted on April 7th, 2009 at 1:19 amChristine M’s above is the same as mine. It always works great–you can let it rise, but don’t have to.
Posted on April 7th, 2009 at 7:29 amEasiest sauce ever… we use Del Monte petit diced tomatos with garlic and olive oil (yep, that’s all on the can!) straight out of the can! We scoop the chunky tomato bits out and fill in the other areas with the juicy sauce left in the can.
It turns out a little on the sweet side, so if you like savory this may not be for you!
Posted on April 13th, 2009 at 6:46 pmMy Trader Joe’s in NY sells pizza dough in a bag for under $1– in white, whole wheat and herb. It’s quite good.
Posted on April 22nd, 2009 at 1:51 pmLissa, months late, but just adding my two cents about pizza dough. Since moving to the boonies 15 years ago, in the country and away from NYC, I found the only way to get good pizza was to make it myself. For the first few years I looked for a good dough recipe, but stopped when I came across the one in Frances Mayes’ “Under the Tuscan Sun”. It’s the one we use all the time, and I like the idea that it came from somewhere under the Tuscan sun! After all this time, I’m not sure if the recipe below is exactly as it is in the book or if I’ve adapted it a bit : ).
Dissolve 1 pkg (1 tbsp) yeast and 1 tsp. sugar in 1/2 cup warm water. Let bubble.
In large bowl, mix 3-1/4 cups flour, 1/2 tsp. sea salt, 3 tbsp. olive oil, 3/4 cup water. Add yeast mixture. Let rise anywhere from half an hour to several hours. Recipe can easily be doubled.
Best baked at about 450 degrees for about 15 minutes, or on the bbq, which is our new favorite place to make pizza, even in the winter.
Posted on June 4th, 2009 at 8:23 am