Good Pizza

Well, last night I think I made a really perfect pizza. I've been experimenting over the last couple of years with sauces and crusts and toppings, but I really liked what we came up with last night. I've tried to make a healthy crust with a mixture of cornmeal and oat flour, but the dough just doesn't rise and the pizza ends up tasting like yeast! I then tried cornmeal and whole wheat flour and the same thing happened, so I went back to plain old whole wheat flour and only let it rise once for a single pizza and twice for two pizzas. I also just dispensed with making sauce all together because after watching the pizza makers in NYC...if you love pizza, you know that NYC has the best pizza ever made. Someday, I will apprentice myself to a pizza maker in NY and find out exactly how to make their crust.

ANNNNNNyway....here is what I did:
You'll need a pizza stone...never thought they worked until Vicky gave me one for my birthday...thank you Vicky!

for the crust:

1 cup hot tap water (not too hot)
2 packs yeast

dump the yeast in the bottom of a bowl and sprinkle the hot water overtop let stand ten minutes until frothy.

2 cups whole wheat flour
couple of dashes of sea salt
crumbled rosemary leaves
perhaps some oregano and or garlic powder
olive oil

Toppings:
Fresh tomatos (with basil when the season hits)
chedder or monteray Jack cheese
and your favorite toppings

Put ingredients except olive oil in a bowl and pour ready made yeast mixture on top. Stir together with a fork until dough comes together. It should be dry. Add 1/4 cup olive oil as needed over dough and begin kneading dough in the bowl with your hands. Dough should come together in a ball at this point. I keep my dough in the bowl and knead it for several minutes, adding more olive oil as it gets sticky. Don't over knead! When it feels right, cover bowl tightly with plastic wrap and a tea towel and place in a warm spot (I have this nifty warmer burner on my oven that I use sometimes) and let stand for about an hour or until doubled.

If you want to make two pizzas: After the dough has doubled, punch it down, halve it with a dough blade and let the two doughs rise for another hour.

Spread olive oil on your pizza stone and dump dough in the middle, pushing and pressing it to the sides and corners...if your dough doesn't cooperate, let it sit for a couple of minutes on the stone and it will rise again for you enough to push and prod some more.

Cover dough with a sprinking of olive oil and a dash more sea salt for flavor, cover with tomatos and your favorite toppings (last night was spinach and sausage) and then your favorite cheese..we use either monteray Jack or chedder most nights...it gives the pizza that much more flavor. There is a great jalapeno chedder that works wonders. Pop in a 400 degree oven on a lower shelf until the cheese is golden brown.

I can't believe we ate the whole thing!

Enjoy,
Seth