My Updated Pizza Obsession

I have never been much of a bookworm.  Gabe, on the other hand, could live with his nose in a book and be happy.  He once spent a several hundred dollar Amazon gift card he got for Christmas by the following March - all on (you guessed it) books (several of which he still hasn't read - but that's another story for another time).  Oh, and my mother-in-law is literally (see what I did there?) a librarian so it's not really a surprise he has this love of books and reading.  But the man has some sEEEriously dry reading interests..in my most humble opinion, of course.  Topics of most interest include: history, military history, sci-fi, teen fiction, romance, etc.  Ok fine, I added in that last two but of the lot I would choose them over the other three - gun to my head.  Sharing a Kindle w/ him is a kinda hilarious because it looks something like: 

• Lions of Kandahar
• Foreign Devils on the Silk Road
• Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic
• Fifty Shades of Grey
• Hannibal Crosses The Alps
• Bossypants

Would love to see what sort of suggested readings he gets from Amazon.  Yes, you picked out my two books on that list and yes, I like literary junk food.  

Did someone say food?

Carby, carby goodness.

Uhh, right.  I can't say I have the type of attention span to get lost in a military history book about Prussia and forego sleep to do so.  I'm practical.  WHAT is for dinner tonight?  What is the best cooking oil to use for what?  Where did you go in Portland that I can't leave without stopping by for a doughnut?  That is useful information (to me).

Mmmmm, mushrooms..

Anywho - we eat this deeelish pizza for dinner all the time.  A little something like 4 years ago I posted about this pizza and how I love it and wanted to marry it b/c it was all that.  Well, I have a new pizza recipe in my life and I'll never look back. 

This picture is so fake, you know I had like 4 more slices of pizza.

Found this amazing recipe on Smitten Kitchen - another one of my favorite blogs and I've been making it a few months now, life has changed AGAIN.  Sorry PW, I still love you but this pizza is way better and still so easy to make.  It is the closest thing to take-out pizza I've been able to recreate at home.

She even gives all the options on when to start the dough - whether overnight, morning of or afternoon of times to start it.  Yes, it does need to rise but it's really painless, promise.  It's called LAZY Pizza Dough for Pete's sake.

Overnight - 22 hr rise

All-Day - 12 hr rise

Part-Day - 8 hr rise

These rise times are approximate and definitely work +/- a few hours.

Lazy Pizza Dough

from this recipe on Smitten Kitchen

makes a half sheet pan pizza

3 cups AP or bread flour (I use bread)
Slightly heaped 1/8, 1/4 or 1/2 teaspoon active dry yeast (for Overnight, All-Day, or Part-Day Schedules respectively, above)
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 1/4 cup room temp water, plus an additional tablespoon or two if needed (I almost always need it)

Throw everything in to a mixing bowl and mix until your arm falls off.  Or get a stand mixer and mix w/ the dough hook attachment for about 10 min.  When finished mixing, cover the bowl w/ plastic wrap (I use the same bowl I mixed in because, ya, I'm lazy).  The dough will be very sticky and shaggy.  I always put a ring of olive oil around the bowl for fun.  

I almost always make this with either the all-day or part-day, stick it in a (cold) oven w/ the oven light on to proof (rise).  

When the dough is finished rising, (take the dough out of the oven if you're using it to proof and) preheat the oven to 550 degrees and prepare the pan you'll be baking the pizza on (I don't have a fancy pizza stone so I just use a 1/2 sheet pan) by dusting it with a liberal amount of cornmeal.  Sprinkle the dough (and your hands) with flour and use a spatula to scrape the it out of the bowl.  Stretch the dough to fit the pan (don't roll it out!) and make sure there are no sticky spots underneath by sprinkling with more cornmeal until it moves freely when you shake the pan.  

Bake w/ your favorite pizza toppings for about 10-15 min until the cheese is nice and bubbly, enjoy!

Killing me softly.

Notes:

I've since changed my mind about fresh mozzarella much due to the fact that, after reading the Smitten Kitchen posting about pizza, I agree the aged mozz is much better for pizza.  It comes out nowhere near as soggy and I still get a great flavorful cheesy topping.  I love the Trader Joe's Whole Milk Mozzarella hunk and grate it myself.  Furthermore, I haven't had the patience to add another step to the pizza by doing what she does w/ the canned tomatoes - I just used Trader Joe's jarred pizza sauce.  The sauce is really good but a tad on the salty side so I never need to add any other seasonings to the toppings.  Hope you try it!  And if you do, tell me how it turned out! 

My Pizza Obsession

Hi friends! Sorry I've been out of commission for a few weeks. New job, company, sleep deprivation! All worth it though. I've got a backlog of recipes to share but for now, here's my absolute favorite thing I've learned since being on PW's website: making homemade pizza.

This pizza is seriously the easiest thing you've ever made. You can make it in advance, let it sit in the fridge, stick it in the freezer, whatever.

I haven't made the version that's in these photos for a while, but no matter - it's super versatile.

We almost always make this pizza with:

• fresh mozzarella
• feta cheese
• fresh garlic
• baby portabello mushrooms
• proscuitto
• fresh spinach

..but it's super versatile. My suggestion is to keep 'wet' ingredients to a minimum: tomatoes, onions, peppers, etc. Since it's such a thin crust it can get soggy. Carrie suggested caramelized onions one night we made this and it was awesome.

I'm actualy more of a thick crust pizza girl but this pizza is seriously deee-lish. It's basically PW's pizza recipe, I just like to use a mix of whole wheat as well as AP flour.

If you have time, roasted eggplant is really yummy. Just slice into 1/4" slices, drizzle w/ some olive oil and roast at 425 degrees for about 25 minutes until they're nice and caramelized.

That's only if you have time. If you don't, just go w/ some easy ingredients you have laying around. Sorry I haven't taken photos of the dough making process, it's just so easy. Plus, PW has step-by-step instructions too.

Bake at 500 degrees for about 20 minutes.

Doesn't that look good?

It's about to get better..wait for it..

Basil.

Basil makes everything better.

Pair it w/ a good salad to make yourself feel better about eating the whole thing.

Pizza. Side salad.

Here's a proscuitto, garlic, feta and spinach.

And pepper.

The proscuitto is awesome. Gets nice and crispy like bacon.

You can see the little bits of fresh garlic. It gets super fragrant and crunchy.

And the feta adds so much flavor.

I think I may have drooled on my keyboard a little there.

I hope you make this soon. Then don't blame me for putting it into your repertoire. It's been in heavy rotation at my house since PW posted it in February.

Pizza Dough

makes 2 balls of dough, each enough to fit a half sheet pan

adapted from The Pioneer Woman's favorite pizza dough

2 c. AP flour
2 c. whole wheat flour
1/3 c. extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp. kosher salt
1.5 c. extra warm water (about 110 degrees or so)
1.5 tsp. dry active yeast (can use 1 tsp. if using all AP flour)
1 tbsp. cornmeal for sprinkling on bottom

Dissolve yeast in water and set aside. In a stand mixer, mix flours and salt. While the mixer is going on low speed, drizzle in olive oil. Then stir water/yeast mixture and pour into mixer on low speed. After all is poured, continue to mix for a few minutes. If the dough looks too wet, sprinkle in 1 tbsp. of flour at a time.

Note: PW suggests using the paddle but I find using the dough hook works fine too, just requires a little more flour. Keep some on the side and sprinkle in 1 tbsp. at a time until the dough comes together in a ball.

If your making for the week: divide the dough in half and drizzle with about 1 tbsp. olive oil, rub to coat. Place in separate containers (I use clean 32 oz. containers that my cottage cheese or sour cream came in from Costco). I usually just put the top on, put it in the fridge and wait at least one day for it to rise slowly as PW suggests.

If you're making day-of: just leave it on the counter or some warm, non drafty place to rise for at least an hour.

If you want to use one and store the other for later, just wrap tightly w/ plastic wrap and place in the freezer until the day-of. Take it out in the a.m. and put on the counter at least 6 hrs. before baking.

When you're ready to bake, preheat oven to 500 degrees. Flatten out the dough onto a half sheet pan (don't use non-stick pan, the oven temp is too hot so that coating would burn right off). Flattened dough should be about 1/4" thick. Instead of more olive oil, sprinkle cornmeal liberally on the bottom of the dough for easy removal and added texture.

Toppings:

1 1/4 c. fresh mozzerella
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 tbsp. crumbled feta cheese
4-5 thin slices proscuitto
3/4 c. sliced baby bella mushrooms
2 c. fresh baby spinach
1 tbsp. olive oil
fresh basil for garnish

Add toppings (I like to put toppings on in this order from the mozzarella to spinach. Bake at 500 degrees for about 20 minutes until cheese is golden and bubbly. Garnish w/ red pepper flakes.