Ultimate pizza with minimal fuss

BlogNote from Kate:
We’re heading out on 2/14 for a whirlwind trip to the Grand Canyon and there won’t be any new posts for a week or so until life returns to normal in the kitchen.

We’re all about pizza in our house; its one of our ‘Go-To’ meals for those nights where inspiration is MIA. We run the gamut of using frozen Boboli crusts to purchased balls of dough from a local italian deli. Since my bread machine went belly-up prior to Christmas, I haven’t tossed a scratch dough together and I found lately that I have been missing that option but did not have a tried and true scratch recipe to use.

Then, as the craving for yeasty, herb studded dough seemed to hit its peak of temptation, and what I can only think of as ‘recipe kismet’, I came across a scratch recipe in a link that came to my blog through the search engine from Pamela’s Kitchen. That night, we made the dough and I’ll tell you something, I am never looking back.

I scrolled through Pamela’s blog and saw plenty of mouth-watering photos and recipes, yet when I went to tell her how thrilled I was to find her pizza crust recipe, and how timely it was, I came across my nemesis: Comments. With. Google. Only.

Gads….. *sigh* Ok, so here is the backstory:

For those of you with Google blogs who have enabled the ‘Anonymous’ option for comments, I thank you profusely. Somehow, even when I input all my WordPress attributes for that option (which I am happy to see, even if it’s imperfect), I still cannot post a comment so I just don’t bother anymore and use the ‘Anonymous’ option, signing myself ‘Kate (in the Kitchen) not a fan of Google.’ I have given up on establishing a Google account after five attempts to start one that became impossible to access no matter what I did. If you have Google, and it works for you, more power to ya; it ain’t happening for me. If somewhere there is to be found a ‘No Google’ logo, someone send it to me, K? I will post it proudly. I might even compensate you if you made one for me.

Enough of that. Pamela, here is my comment- “The pizza crust is fabulous and my family thanks you profusely. I made two batches and our pizza was the best it has been. It is now a permanent fixture in our recipe file”

The dough took about 10 minutes in the K5, and about 35-45 on the stovetop for rising. At 475, the pizza baked in 10 minutes. We separated the ball into two pieces and the crust was nice and crunchy; it would be softer if left in one piece. The flavor was perfect.

I still don’t like Google.

But we LOVE this pizza crust! And I look forward to seeing more of what Pamela can do.

One thing I enjoy about pizza is the flexibility in toppings. I have used many, many different options; I like fresh roma tomato slices on the crust in place of sauce and I have also used olive tapenade and basil pesto instead of sauce with fabulous results. I have made it completely with vegetables like sliced bell peppers, sliced zucchini, spinach, kalamata olives, roasted red peppers, portabella mushrooms, thinly sliced garlic and shallots….the list can go on and on. Caramelized onions are a particular favorite.

I like chicken on my pizza, and sometimes we use soy sausage-style crumbles. Griffin, obviously, is all about meat on his pizza, but he also likes mushrooms and onions. And of course, cheese. Lots of cheese. I also find that a good seasoning sprinkled over the top is a terrific touch. We use Penzeys Pizza seasoning, and I also like McCormicks Parmesan herb blend, and their Basil and Garlic blend.

For these that we made with Pamela’s great dough, Griffin’s pizza had sausage and mushroom on it; Mike and I had that plus kalamata olives and roasted red peppers. They were both fabulous.

I took my second batch of this dough, to which I added two heaping tablespoons of dried italian herbs, and made a wonderful focaccia bread from it. I sprinkled the top of the dough with sea salt and some of the aforementioned herbs and a fine coating of fresh grated parmesan and baked it until golden in my stoneware bar pan. It was crispy and very tasty.

Pizza dough can be frozen too. I have read that it can be frozen prior to its initial rise, and also after the first rise. Drop a frozen ball on your counter in the morning and it should be ready to play with by dinnertime.

(recipe and notes after the jump)

Pizza Crust

1 T. yeast
1 T. sugar
1 1/3 c. warm water
3 c. flour
1/4 c. corn meal
3 T. Olive Oil
1 t. salt

In a stand mixer bowl dissolve the yeast in 1/3 c. warm water.
Add remaining ingredients, and with dough hook, mix and knead until dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl and forms a ball. Additional flour may be needed in this process. Continue to knead for about 2 minutes until dough is pliable.

Remove dough from mixing bowl and put into large oiled bowl to rise. Put in a warm place free of drafts and allow to rise until doubled in bulk. Punch down, separate into two pieces and stretch or roll into desired shape. Top with choices and bake.

RECIPE NOTES: when I added dry herbs I put them in with the flour and cornmeal but they likely can be added at any point during the kneading process. I used an italian herb mix with parsley, rosemary, basil and thyme.