I love homemade pizza. I love it so much that I prefer it to take-out pizza any day! I've spent almost a decade perfecting my homemade pizza recipe and it is pretty awesome if I do say so myself! (and I do)
So I thought that some of you would perhaps like to try out my recipe for pizza success! NOTE: I use my breadmaker for the dough. If you don't have a breadmaker, you may want to try another recipe. OR you could try this one made by hand... I've never done it, so I can't vouch for it. You will want to check out other recipes for the basic dough making instructions. It takes the breadmaker 2 hours to prepare the dough, and it has a double rise. If making by hand, always *proof* the yeast for 5 minutes in warm water prior to adding to the dough, it should become nice and bubbly. If not, you need new yeast.
Nessa's Delicious Pizza Recipe
INGREDIENTS:
Dough:
1. 1 1/2 cups beer (I prefer a nice amber or brown ale for a fuller flavour, but lager works too)
2. 1 1/2 tsp salt
3. 1 tbsp sugar
4. 2 tbsp olive oil margarine (or regular marg, but NOT oil)
5. 4 1/4 cups white flour (Health foodies won't like this, but after years of experimenting with both white and whole wheat crusts, we prefer white flour. It gives a lighter, fluffier crust than whole wheat)
6. 2 tsp yeast
7. A sprinking (maybe 1/2 tsp? herbes des provence)
Put all ingredients, in order of listing, into breadmaker. Choose dough setting and hit start. Remove dough after 2 hours (when dough is finished) and cut into three peices (We make 3 8.5"X8.5" pizzas with 6 slices each, you can also probably get two med-lrg pizzas out of this). Roll pieces into balls and cover with a light coating of olive oil. To do this, I put a bit of oil into the palm of my hand and rub it over my palms. I then rub the dough ball with my hands to lightly coat it. Place the dough into a large bowl and cover with a tea towel. Take the first dough ball and roll out thin (~1/2 cm) cover pan with 1 1/2 cm over hang of dough. Roll dough back onto itself to create a puffed up edge. You can also fill this with thin strips of cheese for a stuffed crust! YUM! Repeat the rolling process for all three.
Nice amber or brown ales add a full bodied flavour to the dough. Enjoy the rest of the bottle with dinner!TOPPING:
Pizza sauce, I use spaghetti sauce for this, amount is dictated by preference really. I use about 1/4 large can of Hunt's four cheese tomato sauce. You can use whatever sauce you love. Layer bottom of pie with sauce, then a layer of chopped up fresh basil leaves. Top with whatever you like! For the top pizza, I did brown mushrooms, followed by some mozzarella cheese, tomatoes and yellow peppers, and a sprinkling of white Aged Canadian cheddar for extra flavour. The top was lightly sprinkled in Herbes des Provence before baking. I like to let my pizza sit for 15-20 minutes before baking them to get a nice fluffy crust. If you prefer a thinner crust, bake immediately after topping. Bake for ~25 mins in a 350 degree oven, broil two minutes until your cheese has nice golden flecks. Let cool for about 10 minutes before slicing.
OTHER AWESOME TOPPINGS:
- diced onions on the sauce layer
- portabella mushrooms
- broccoli tops cut small
- veggie ground round (seriously, sooo good!)
- pepperoni (Jeff's fave, always put on top with a tiny sprinkle of cheese to get crispy pepperoni)
- olives
- sundried tomatoes
- feta cheese
- spinach (cut into small pieces and placed apart from each other)
- salami (see pepperoni instructions)
- all kinds of peppers (put them in the top layer, under a sprinkle of cheese to prevent soggy dough)
- artichoke hearts (under layer one of cheese)
- anything else you love!
Veggie ground round is delicious under a sharp white cheddar topping.
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