We have prepared hand made pizzas on several occasions and is quite fun to do when staying in a cabin, which is what we did on our first night at the Paradise Point cabin last week for our Christmas trip which I posted about our adventures and misadventures earlier in the week with Mountain Christmas Cabin Adventures.
A short note of apology! If you reached any of my web pages recently and got a warning about malware being installed from the site, this issue has been resolved. A third-party ad link was the suspected culprit. This message from Google Webmaster tools: A review for this site has finished. The site was found clean. The badware warnings from web search are being removed. Please note that it can take some time for this change to propagate.
I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused any of my visitors, it is certainly an issue that has caused much headache and pain that was very unexpected. I know of a few other foodie bloggers who have had the same issue crop up for their sites, and it is no fun being targeted by hackers and also having your site blacklisted in the process. Now, back to the pizza recipe.
This is a simple and quick from scratch and hand made pizza dough recipe. Below this is a list of suggested toppings, and my quick tomato sauce recipe too.
Pizza Dough
| Ingredients | ||
| 1 | Pack | Active dry yeast ( 2 tsp) |
| 1 | Tbsp | Sugar |
| 1 | Cup | Water, warmed to 110° F. |
| 3 | Cups | All purpose flour |
| 1 | Tsp | Salt |
| 1 ½ | Tbsp | Olive oil, divided |
| Procedure Steps | |
| 1. | Dissolve the yeast and sugar in the warm water and set aside to activate the yeast for about 5 minutes. |
| 2. | In a large mixing bowl combine the flour and salt, then make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in 1 Tbsp of the olive oil and then add the yeast mixture. Stir until it begins to form a ball. Then turn it out onto a clean, floured surface. |
| 3. | Kneed the dough for 5 minutes, or until it becomes a smooth, elastic ball. Set the oven to 170° F to set up was is known as a proofing box. |
| 4. | Lightly oil the ball and a large bowl with the remaining olive oil. Place the dough in the bowl, and cover with a slightly damp kitchen towel. |
| 5. | Set the bowl with the covered dough in a warm 170° F oven then turn off the heat. |
| 6. | Allow the dough to double in size, or about an hour and thirty minutes. |
| 7. | Remove the dough from the bowl and punch down, then cut into two equal portions, or about 12 ounces each. Pre-heat oven to 500° F. |
| 8. | Roll each portion into a ball, (If desired you can refrigerate or freeze the dough if necessary) then working with a lightly floured surface, stretch the dough and work it with your fingers or a rolling pin to form a 16-inch circle, this will be the crust. Do this for each dough ball for two pizzas. The outer edge of the circle should be a little thicker than the body, forming a rim. |
| 9. | Add the tomato sauce (see recipe below) in a thin layer. Then add any toppings, typically cheese, toppings, and then more cheese. |
| 10. | Transfer pizzas to a pan or pizza stone, then put them into the pre-heated 500° F. oven and bake until the crust is golden brown and the cheese is melted, 10 to 15 minutes, or longer if the oven does not heat exactly to 500° F. |
If you want that crisp, restaurant-quality pizza crust in your own home, cook your pizza on a pizza stone. A pizza peel is a handy tool, too, for transferring your pizzas to and from the oven. A Pizza Stone and Peel Set is inexpensive and adds professional pizzazz to the pizza making event.
 |
| Family eagerly anticipating some pizza! |
| Quick Pizza Tomato Sauce | ||
| Ingredients | ||
| ½ | Tbsp | Olive oil |
| 1 | Cup | Onions, chopped |
| 6 | Cloves | Garlic, minced |
| 2 | Tbsp | Rosemary, fresh chopped |
| 1 | Cup | Merlot, or red wine |
| ½ | Can | Tomato paste, 6 ounces |
| 1 | Can | Tomato sauce, 14 ounces |
| 1 | Tbsp | Italian seasoning blend |
| To taste | Salt and black pepper | |
| Procedure Steps | |
| 1. | Heat olive oil in a saucepan and sauté the onions and garlic until soft, then add the rosemary and stir well. |
| 2. | Add the red wine and allow it to reduce a bit, then stir in the tomato paste until incorporated and then add the tomato sauce and allow to simmer for a few minutes. |
| 3. | Add the Italian seasoning and continue to simmer for at least 30 minutes. |
| 4. | Season to taste with the salt and black pepper. |
A Short List of Suggested Toppings
Meats
Italian sausage, browned and drained
Bacon, cooked, drained and chopped
Canadian bacon
Pepperoni
Shrimp, pre-cooked
Crabmeat
Anchovies
Boneless chicken strips, pre-cooked
Vegetables
Bell peppers, red, green, yellow, sliced
Red onions, sliced
Artichoke hearts, quartered
Capers
Black olives, sliced
Green olives, sliced
Celery, sliced
Spinach leaves, steamed
Broccoli, par-boiled and chilled
Cauliflower, par-boiled and chilled
Cheeses
Feta cheese, crumbled
Mozzarella cheese, shredded
Provolone cheese, shredded
Romano, Parmesan, or hard Ricotta cheese, shredded
19 responses so far ↓
1 pegasuslegend // Dec 30, 2009 at 11:20 am
very glad you posted this one it looks magnificent in your Christmas vacation post…man this is an awesome recipe. thanks
2 Banu B Bingor // Dec 30, 2009 at 12:01 pm
Oh dear!
I didn’t noticed however happy that you solved the problem.
That’s why I hate adding much ads to blogs.. They are not so professional all 🙁
But the pizza 😀 oh so good!!!
3 Kelly // Dec 30, 2009 at 12:53 pm
Mmmmm. I love pizza as much as I love chocolate–your crust recipe is going into the “must make” file, maybe for tonight!
4 Vegetable Matter // Dec 30, 2009 at 1:25 pm
Beautiful pizzas. Your family is very lucky!
5 TheKitchenMasochist // Dec 30, 2009 at 4:33 pm
That looks beautiful and delicious. I will add this to my list of “Must Attempts.”
6 Ingeborg // Dec 30, 2009 at 9:53 pm
Beautiful looking pizzas. I make my own pizzas as well.
7 Conor @ HoldtheBeef // Dec 31, 2009 at 7:15 am
Once you start making your own pizzas, it takes a VERY good one from a store or restaurant to stand up to what you’re used to! These look great 🙂
8 Shirley // Dec 31, 2009 at 11:38 am
I love the idea of making my own pizza.
9 Trix // Jan 1, 2010 at 7:19 pm
I can read your blog again, hooray! The pizzas look fab – I love making my own dough, it’s so much fun!
10 Doc // Jan 2, 2010 at 12:28 pm
Hey Chef,
Those look delicious. Haven’t ssen much of a good pizza here in South Africa; your blog makes me hungry!
-Doc
11 Drick // Jan 2, 2010 at 12:46 pm
catching up on posts – one word for your pizza – fantastic … gonna try this soon…
12 wasabi prime // Jan 2, 2010 at 7:51 pm
I haven’t had pizza in a while and this is making me crave it that much more!!
13 redkathy // Jan 3, 2010 at 5:07 pm
Yummy I love homemade pizza! Your sauce sounds awesome, never thought to add some vino! I made a focaccia bread for New Years Day. Would have rather had a pizza however the family wasn’t too keen on pizza and ham 🙂 Wishing you a blessed and happy new year!
14 Pecinta Kuliner // Jan 3, 2010 at 10:56 pm
Looks very delicious, very tempting.
15 Pecinta Kuliner // Jan 3, 2010 at 10:58 pm
Hope to exchange links with Indonesia’s Culinary Lovers
16 Alta // Jan 4, 2010 at 10:18 am
Oh yum, it’s a little after 8 am and I’m craving pizza!
17 Tina Marie // Jan 4, 2010 at 12:59 pm
One of my favorite posts – I LOVE pizza and homemade is the the best. Those are great photos of your family by the way 🙂
18 Dimitry Mishchuk // Jan 5, 2010 at 10:35 pm
This pizza looks great I’m going to try your sauce this week, I will be baking my in wood burning pizza oven.
19 Pizza Recipe // Jan 26, 2010 at 3:54 pm
Yummy, that looks really good man. Nice.