Pizza, Pizza!

Although I have found a couple of pizza dough recipes that I love, I like to keep trying new ones. It helps me grow as a chef! So, I tried a new crust, and although it was good, it definitely made more than what it said - one large pizza. So, I took what I thought was a third of the dough and reserved it. Basically, it made one large semi thick crust, and one large thin crust pizza.

The bottom picture was pizza in the oven on Friday night, and the top picture is the dough grilled on Saturday afternoon - either way, the dough worked out well. Pizza in 2 consecutive days? Sounds like a good weekend to me! But I'm sure the dough would freeze well for future use.



Jay's Signature Pizza Crust
from Allrecipes

INGREDIENTS:
2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
1/2 teaspoon brown sugar
1 1/2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons olive oil I used 1 -1.5 tbsp
3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

DIRECTIONS:
1. In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast and brown sugar in the water, and let sit for 10 minutes.

2. Stir the salt and oil into the yeast solution. Mix in 2 1/2 cups of the flour.

3. Turn dough out onto a clean, well floured surface, and knead in more flour until the dough is no longer sticky. Place the dough into a well oiled bowl, and cover with a cloth. Let the dough rise until double; this should take about 1 hour. Punch down the dough, and form a tight ball. Allow the dough to relax for a minute before rolling out. Use for your favorite pizza recipe.

4. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). If you are baking the dough on a pizza stone, you may place your toppings on the dough, and bake immediately. If you are baking your pizza in a pan, lightly oil the pan, and let the dough rise for 15 or 20 minutes before topping and baking it.

5. Bake pizza in preheated oven, until the cheese and crust are golden brown, about 15 to 20 minutes.

Garlicky Pizza Sauce
from Me

6 oz tomato paste
1/2 cup (or more if required) of water
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp oregano
1.5 tsp dried onion
1.5 tsp dried basil
dash of sugar
salt & pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients in a bowl & let flavors blend. It makes enough for 2 large pizzas.

* For the oven pizza, I preheated my pizza stone on 500 for 30-45 minutes. I reduced the heat to 425 and baked the pizza for 10-16 minutes.

* For the grilled pizza, I sprayed the grill with non-stick grill cooking spray, heated the grill for 5 minutes or so on high. I turned the heat to medium-high, lightly brushed the pizza dough with EVOO and flipped it with tongs onto the grill and brushed the top side with EVOO. After a couple of minutes rotate the dough to make sure it isn't sticking and cooks evenly.

Once the bottom is golden, carefully flip over and either slide back onto your cookie sheet (or surface you carried it out on) or reduce heat and leave it on the grill, and put on your toppings. Cook for another 6-8 minutes or so, until cheese is melted, and remove from grill. Enjoy!!

For my half - I had baby Bella mushrooms, red onions, pepperoni & Italian turkey sausage (in the oven version) and fresh basil.

For Jamie's half - no veggies! Just pepperoni, Italian turkey sausage (in the oven version) & fresh basil.

For the cheese I changed it up a bit, I used 1/2 part skim mozzarella, 1/4 part aged sharp white Cheddar & 1/4 part Parmesan cheese.