I'm a sucker for a good slice of pizza. I live about an hour outside of NYC and thirty minutes south of New Haven, CT. It is a 75 mile strip of turf that some might call Pizza Heaven.
After bowing to the Pizza Gods of Fairfield County for a few takeout orders, I thought I would try my own hand at making 'za. After many failed attempts, I realized where the problem lay: The crust.
You see, New York pizza has that kind of crust that, when tasted, can only be described as a religious experience. It is crisp and bubbly on the outside but soft, moist and chewy within. In short, that was where I was failing...it wasn't with the toppings; it was with the crust.
After many trial runs, I have (at least I think I have) succeeded, and I would like to share that success with you.
Things You'll Need:
- Pizza stone (Bed, Bath and Beyond, Linens 'n Things, etc. carries them)
- Active dry yeast--I prefer the jars, not the packets. If you do the packets, you'll only need one of them.
- Mineral water (1 cup) heated to roughly 115 degrees. 30 seconds in a microwave should do the trick.
- Dry red wine
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1 tbsp. honey
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 cups BREAD flour
- 1 cup All-PURPOSE flour
- Pizza Sauce (either canned or homemade. If you want to use homemade, which I recommend sans reservation, I have a pizza sauce recipe up, as well)
- Thinly sliced Boar's Head (you can use other brands, but this is my standby) whole milk Mozzarella cheese.
Instructions:
- In a large bowl, mix the two kinds of flour with a fork until evenly blended. Perhaps it seems a little OCD to use two different types of flour, but bear with me. Bread flour contains a higher protein content than your standard All-Purpose flour. The reason that this is important is that higher protein contents mean more gluten. Gluten is what gives raw dough that "stretchy" quality, which is exactly what you want for pizza.
- In a DIFFERENT large bowl, combine the heated water, the wine, the honey, 1 tbsp of the olive oil, the salt, and the yeast. Mix in for 10-15 seconds with a fork and let sit for five minutes. The warm water will activate the yeast and you'll be ready to...
- ...start adding in the flour. In the same large bowl as above, add 1 cup of the flour mixture and stir in with a wooden spoon until you have achieved a batter. Continue to add in the flour, using the wooden spoon for as long as possible. Once the dough becomes too dense to be stirred, you'll have to use your hands. Make sure you get all three cups of flour in and then start kneading.
- As you knead the dough, use the palms of your hands more than your fingers. you'll need to periodically dust the dough with more flour. You can use either all purpose or bread flour for this. You will have to knead the dough for 6-8 minutes.
- Cut the dough into three equal pieces. If you're only making one pizza, believe it or not, this little piece of dough will make a 'za about 11" in diameter. You can freeze the other two pieces for later use.
- Fuhgetaboutit. Seriously. Drizzle the remaining olive oil onto the kneaded dough, cover the bowl with aluminum foil, and then put it in the warmest part of the kitchen and go do something else for an hour--no more no less.
- Uncover the dough and remove from bowl. On a well-floured surface, flatten dough out and go over it a time or two with a rolling pin. Then, gently remove from the surface and spread out using your fists. If you don't trust yourself on this last step, you can use the rolling pin to get the job done.
- Put pizza stone into cold oven and preheat to 450. DO NOT put the pizza stone into a hot oven as the severe switch in temperature will cause it to crack.
- Transfer dough to pizza peel and put on desired amount of toppings. If making a pizza with traditional tomato sauce base, you want to use just enough sauce to lightly cover the entire pizza. Then, lay down the cheese (on an 11 inch pizza, anywhere from 7-9 very thin slices of cheese will get the job done). Add any other toppings you would like.
- Transfer pizza to now hot pizza stone in oven and bake for 10 minutes or until cheese has just started to brown. Remove from oven, cut immediately with pizza slicer and let cool until desired temperature is reached.
By acwellman
http://www.ehow.com/how_4676029_make-pizza.html
