Re: Pizza Dough
I have a simple recipe for pizza dough that can be manipulated to be thick or thin. I mix it in a large glass bowl with a handle and measurements on the sides, although it doesnt really matter.<br /><br />Ingredients: 3cups 1st grade flour<br /> 1.25 cups hot water (not boiling, you can put your finger in it)<br /> 1teaspoon salt<br /> 2teaspoons granulated yeast<br /> olive oil<br /><br />Preheat oven to maximum (220Cplus) whatever that is in farenheit.<br /><br />Put the sugar into the water and stir, add the yeast.<br /><br />sprinkle the salt over the flour and give a light stirring with the fingers to aerate the flour.<br /><br />when the yeast is frothy tip into the salted flour and stir until there is no dry flour left in the bowl. This should be a fairly wet mix.<br /><br />Tip a little olive oil in (around 1or 2 tablespoons )and knead the dough, knead until all lumps are gone. Put aside in a warm place (in sunny weather I put it outside in a closed car for about half an hour) otherwise the hotwater cupboard for a little longer or some other warm place.The dough will expand a lot. It doesnt need long.<br /><br />My oven has steel oven trays about 17"by14"which I directly bake the Pizza on.<br /><br /><br />I put a generous amount of olive oil on a tray, spread it over and put about half the dough onto it.<br /><br />I use a rolling pin to roll it out, flipping the dough over so the other side gets oiled too.<br /><br />The dough shrinks back but by keeping at it you will eventually get it as thin as you want it, cutting off excess and returning to the remainder for the second pizza.<br /><br />If you want a thicker one dont roll so much. <br /><br />You can add or reduce the amount of oil to suit your tastes, more gives that almost fried texture that I like.<br /><br />Because I dont have a pizza oven I put the base in the oven by itself for a short time, turning over once to just get it started. A couple of minutes, watching all the time. Then out and add the sauce and topping , oregano and basil and whatever else .<br /><br />sometimes I fashion the other half of the dough into a long sausage shape and then make it into a french style bread , painting milk onto the outside a couple of times if I want a crisp crust, and serve as garlic bread.<br /><br />This recipe is not too critical on any of the quantities, I tend to do it by feel rather than measurement. Try it and play around with it, more or less salt ,etc.<br /><br />Enjoy.
