My Followers are the Greatest! I just love them!

Friday, August 6, 2010

Pizza Dough - Bittman Style



I am always on the lookout for fabulous Pizza Dough - We like it thin, crispy and to have a little flavor. Today I tried out another of Mark Bittman's recipes (I may just become a groupie - who knows), this time for pizza dough.


Mark gives lots of great tips on how to make great dough - one that I have tried before and found made a huge difference - Heat Your Oven to 500 degrees, and your pizza stone (if you aren't rolling right onto it) he suggests starting to heat things up about a half hour before you are going to put the dough in the oven.

He also suggests precooking your toppings - meat and vegetables don't have enough time to cook in the short time it takes a pizza to cook.

Don't put a boatload of toppings will steam the dough as it bakes, turning a potentially amazing dough into a soggy mess.

I used my stand mixer - which he gives directions for - and ended up with a tiny ball of dough. He also suggests letting it rise for like 2 hours, which I did(or 8 in the fridge).

He gives lots of ways to "spice up" the dough but I went ahead and just put a tsp of Italian Seasonings in the flour.

Pizza Dough
3 cups flour
2 tsp instant yeast
2 TBS olive oil - (I will be using lard next time)
2 tsp good salt - it was a bit salty even for me who loves salt
1 tsp Italian seasonings
1 cup warm water (he didn't say warm but I used it anyhow as my flour was cold)

Put the flour, yeast, Italian Seasonings and salt in either a stand mixer (what I have) or a food processor.

Slowly add the water and oil as it mixes - use the paddle until it starts to have trouble then switch to the dough hook.
Cover and let rest for 2 hours or up to 8 if you put in the fridge. I topped it with more olive oil - I am a rebel like that.


After a minimum of 2 hours take the dough out and split into 2 smaller balls - cover with a towel and let rest 20 -30 minutes.

This is the time to heat your oven to 500 degrees, saute any veggies, slice or shred your cheese (if you are using fresh mozzarella just slice it thin - don't try shredding like we did)brown your sausage if using - I didn't.


I just sort of toss the dough back and forth - well if you have 10 minutes watch this Alton Brown's Good Eats Pizza Dough Youtube Video - it explains it so well.


If you didn't have time what I did was stretch it out onto my pizza stone - if I had one of those paddle thingies I would have made it on that and transferred it to a HOT stone - but I don't so I put some oil on the stone (and in my iron skillet - I used this as a 2nd stone) first and then stretched away. Once it was the size I wanted I put them in the HOT oven and cooked for about 5 -7 minutes to get the crust going. (this wasn't in Bittman's directions but I have made lots of pizza's and I know we like them better this way).

I then topped with pizza sauce, peppers and onions, mozzarella and finally pepperoni (which of course you can omit) - Yum!



Notes:
1. While this wasn't THE pizza dough - it was the best I have ever made.
2. Think ahead - this is better the longer it sits.
3. LARD - next time use LARD for a crispier dough
4. 1/2 -3/4 tsp salt
5. Make 2 batches so everyone gets enough.
6. Slice the mozzarella thin and leave some air space between so the pizza doesn't get soggy.
7. Bittman is alright - I will be trying more of his recipes!
8. This is an extremely frugal meal and easy, oh so easy!


Linking up to the following wonderful Linky Parties!
I Heart Cooking Clubs Beat the Heat
Get Healthy Cheap very first Family Food Fridays
Life as Mom's Frugal Fridays
Food Renegade's  Fight Back Fridays
HealthFoodLover's Wholesome Whole Foods 
Breastfeeding Mom's Unite - Vegetarian Fridays.

12 comments:

  1. I love pizza! Those are some great tips- I'll definitely use them next time I make pizza! And I love Alton Brown- he explains cooking techniques so well.
    Thanks for linking up to Wholesome Whole Foods.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I have also been searching for great pizza dough. I will have to try Mark Bittman's, I have his cookbook after all! Stopping by from SITS.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Just alright!? ;) If you do decide to cook with Mark, you should head over to IHCC http://iheartcookingclubs.blogspot.com where we're currently cooking with him...for another month and a half or so =) Your pizza looks pretty deeeelicious!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Have you ever tried Fleischmanns Pizza Yeast? It is AMAZING because you don't have to wait AT ALL for the dough to rise!
    http://www.pizzacrustyeast.com/index.html

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hey Christy! We always need a pizza dough recipe on hand. Thanks for linking so I know where to find one!
    I just signed up for following your blog. Not sure why I didn't earlier.... Have a great weekend!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Why is it that I suddenly have pizza on my mind and want to eat one RIGHT NOW?! Thanks Christy... ;)

    Thanks also for visiting my blog.

    Hugs,
    Birgit

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thanks for linking up to IHCC!! Nice to meet ya. I love the idea of adding seasonings to the pizza dough itself - great tip! Your pizza looks delicious.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Lady Kay - what is different about the yeast?? It just doesn't need a warm liquid? Interesting!

    Thanks everyone for stopping and commenting - makes me smile!

    Kim -I do love the addition of seasoning in the dough - it smelled amazing baking!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hi! I hopped over from the Girl Creative and the "New Friend Friday" linky:) We made homemade pizza last weekend. I used "fast" yeast and 50% whole wheat flour(first time to add that in:) You are SO right about this being a "frugal" dish. And it's a fun one, too.My little Goose thinks it's great she get's to "help" with the toppings. I like to cook my crust a bit, too, before adding the toppings. Thanks for sharing this pizza dough recipe!!
    Happy Friday:)

    ReplyDelete
  10. It's been a while since I made a homemade pizza, but this sounds and looks like an excellent recipe to try. We like our pizzas thin and crispy here too. Boy, am I suddenly very hungry. Geezzzz... Okay, following you back (thank you!) thru New Friend Fridays. Pam @ Sallygoodin And thanks for the nice comment about the string lanterns. :)

    ReplyDelete
  11. Welcome to IHCC--happy to have you cooking Mark Bittman with us. The pizza looks wonderful--nothing better than homemade pizza! ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  12. Did you know you can shorten your urls with Shortest and receive $$$$ for every visitor to your shortened urls.

    ReplyDelete