Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Eatsa Pizza :)

I love making pizza. It's an art. Granted, it's an art I'm still perfecting, but I'm getting closer every time I make it.

I've made about three other dough recipes lately, to see how the others fare against my tried-and-true. Three points for tried-and-true. I loooove this recipe. It's easy and only takes about 20 minutes altogether, which is a huge plus. But it also makes fabulous crust, with just the right texture in my book. Did I say I love this recipe??


Dough

1 1/4 cup warm water
1 Tablespoon yeast
2 Tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups flour

1. Dissolve yeast in warm water.
2. Add sugar, salt, and 2 1/2 ups flour. Mix to form dough.
3. Add more flour (up to a 1/2 cup) if needed to pull together. Mix about 3 minutes.
4. Let rest for 10 minutes in bowl.
5. Let it rest for another 10 minutes after you've rolled it out.


Since I'm always improving my pizza-making skills, here are some of my latest tips. Refer to previous pizza post for more. (These assume that you've already been converted to the pizza stone.)
  • Preheat the oven for a good while. Get your oven HOT. I've been a too timid to crank my oven up to 450, but tonight I ventured to 435 and liked it better than normal. If it's good and hot, I think it crisps the very bottom of the crust without over-cooking the rest of it, meaning that the inside of the crust (as in, right below the sauce) can still be tender.
  • Cornmeal makes a huge difference. (Refer to the last paragraph of my previous pizza post.)
  • To jazz up the dough recipe, throw in some Italian spices, like oregano, basil or rosemary. It tastes delicious and makes the crust even prettier.
That's it for now. I'm sure I'll come up with more another time. Good luck with your pizza-making endeavors, and please let me know how it goes! I love to hear about what you're doing in your kitchen!


The little guy was a big fan. :)

"Victory!"

8 comments:

Ryan Nielsen said...

I am the lucky beneficiary of the recipes that my sweet wife makes. That pizza for lunch today was awesome and I think Trenton agrees as well.

sarah said...

Erica, o my goodness you are a baker and not a faker as my father would say. When i come to visit i dont want to eat out cause you food looks way better. Ryan is so lucky to have you cause i just started to steam veggies and launa still cooks from a box.

sarah said...

p.s. trenton looks adorable.

Gianina said...

Yum! This looks soooo good! I am excited to look through your blog! I am glad you found mine!

Anonymous said...

Yum- it just so happend we were having pizza that night, so I tried your recipe! The kids and I made calzones out of it and I made David a little pizza when he got home (late) from work. Both my kids ate all of their calzones (and Adalyn is a well-known pizza hater) and David loved the pizza. I love it too, of course. Our biggest complaint with our current pizza is that the leftovers aren't very good- but we didn't have any leftovers from your recipe to try! I'll start using this crust now- thanks!!

Emily said...

Erica- I know your sister Rachel from her old job at BYU and I love your blog! I was signed up for BYU's cooking class this fall but had to drop it so it looks like I'll be living through you on that one. I can't wait to use this pizza dough!

Erica Layne | Let Why Lead said...

Thanks, everyone!!

Liz said...

Everytime I try to cook something new, I think of you and your blog. Today I was so proud of myself for fixing a nice lunch for Dan when he got home. I made a spagetti pasta salad with and had fresh fruit to go with it. Thanks for imspiring me to goodness. I'm excited to try your pizza recipe. That's one thing I like to make and tastes pretty good.