A couple of comments about pizza crust on a recent post got me to thinking about the weekly pizza I’ve been making for years.
I’ve always liked pizza and I thought I was making good pizza, until several years back the girls were invited to a birthday party at Nanette Davidson’s house.
While the kids talked the grownups sat around in the kitchen watching Nanette make pizzas for everyone. Her pizza was so good—the best I’d ever eaten.
As I watched Nanette I quickly realized a few simple things would bring my pizza making skills to whole new level. Most importantly making my own crust with yeast and allowing it to rise.
In the years since the birthday party I’ve reached a level of pizza making that comes at least close to Nanette’s 🙂
My crust recipe is super simple.
For one pizza crust
- 1 teaspoon yeast
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup hot water
- 1 1/2 cup to 1 3/4 cup flour (I usually use bread flour, but if I’m out I use all-purpose flour)
- additional flour needed for kneading and rolling crust out
I use a stand mixer to make the dough, but you could use a regular mixer or even do it by hand.
Mix yeast, sugar, and water together and let sit for 5 minutes.
Add salt and slowly start mixing in flour. Using a mixer really makes this part easy.
Over the years I’ve figured out the texture of crust we like the best. If the dough is a little wet when you take it from the mixer, the crust has a lighter texture. If you let the dough completely form in the mixer until it’s ready to rise the crust will have a chewier texture-more like a deep dish or pan pizza.
We like the lighter crust, so I only use 1 1/2 cup of flour and remove dough from the mixer while its still a little wet. I knead the extra flour needed into the crust on a cutting board. It doesn’t take much more flour, maybe few tablespoons.
Let dough rise in a covered greased bowl in a warm place for about an hour.
Another thing that brought my pizza making skills to another level is using a pizza stone. I put the stone in a cold oven and set the temperature to bake at 500 degrees. When the oven comes to temperature I carefully take out the heated stone and place the rolled out crust on it and add sauce and toppings.
Carefully put the hot stone back in the oven on the lowest rack and cook for about 10 minutes or till done and you’ll have a dandy pizza.
Tipper
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I have Stones to cook breads and casseroles but I love your idea for cooking the Pizza dough. Thank you. I’ll try that.
Flumlolly! Does anyone else know what this is? My mammaw used this word and no one else I’ve talked to seems to know it.
Also, I am having difficulty making cookies like hers. She didn’t have a recipe. They were plain, high and round, sort of cake like but more coarse, not overly sweet, but she’d put either vanilla or chocolate homemade frosting on them. I’m new here. Sorry if I posted in the wrong place. Thanks!
Sounds like tea cakes. They’re so good! lol
Know that is one tasty pizza…. I really like that yeast made pizza crust too, I love that you can put all your favorite toppings of choice on there with extra cheese…. haven’t tried a pizza stone yet ,think they would be great though… 🙂
looks delicious and fantastic i. use to make home made pizza to mine would have beef hot sausage and pepperoni bell peppers and onions and jalapeno peppers. thanks for sharing
When your pizza is put together and ready to cook, leave your hot (and heavy) pizza stone in the oven… just use a pizza peel (one of those big giant flat paddle looking spatulas made just for this purpose) to transfer the pizza to the hot oven/stone. The peel is also great to take the cooked pizza out from the oven while leaving the hot stone in on the rack ready for the second round of pizzas – that’s if your cooking for a hungry crowd or party (oh when when we all get back to crowd’s and parties!)
That’s what my husband does. He sprinkles corn meal on the peel before he puts the crust on, and it helps the pizza slide onto the stone.
Oh, it looks delicious! My father-in-law loved the homemade pizza my s-i-l and I used to make & he had never been a fan till we started doing homemade. We would get a lot of crusts ready and make a variety of toppings–cooking two at the time with them being gone before we could take out the next two.
You’ve inspired me!! Think I’ll make one tonight.
I also wanted to start making homemade pizzas and bought a cookbook. I have learned that the protein content in the flour makes a world of difference. I am using King Arthur flour with 11.7% protein. Regular flour has about half as much protein. This allows the dough to have a lot more elasticity and will hold together when stretched. There is no comparison to homemade dough! Thanks for you daily posts, they make my day!
Have you tried cold proofed pizza crust? You mix it just the same but sit it in the refrigerator to rise instead of a warm place. Three to five days later you take the dough ball out and bring it to room temperature. When it has warmed up enough you start shaping it. Everything after that is the same except the eating. The yeast has imparted a much better flavor, as least in my opinion. It yields a crispier crust too if that’s what you like.
I make my pizza in a 10 inch Lodge skillet that I cut down and polished. I have a 13 inch stone but never use it. It just sits in the oven, all the time. I tell myself it is holding the temperature in the oven.
I make my pizza in a cold pan. When all the toppings are on I put it on a stove eye turned to high. I listen for a slight sizzle sound meaning it has started to cook on the bottom. At the point I put it in the oven which has been preheated to as high as it will go. I place the skillet and all on the pizza stone and wait for the gooey golden goodness.
Tipper,
I get my Risen Crust Pepperoni Pizzas at the Dollar General Store for $5.00. The otherns with all that Green Stuff cost $6.95. Since I am a Bread Man, I just get the Risen Crust Dejournos without all that Green Stuff on it. Your’s looks very good. …Ken
I’m so glad you shared this recipe. My pizza loving grandsons are going to love it.
I was already to start making it (LOL) till I read take out the “Stone.” I have one of those pizza stones that I keep in the oven but I slide frozen pizza on it that I bought at the store. Homemade would be better but that stone is really big, heavy and going to be hot at 500 degrees so I am going to have to think on this for a bit. I will keep your recipe cause it sure does look like it would be delicious:)
Once again, homemade is best. Seems every time we do things the way that used to be common we discover we never knew what the real thing tasted like. I’ll bet you use home canned tomato sauce to, and fresh herbs on the pizza. You remind me of Adriana Tragiana (probably spelled wrong), the author from Big Stone Gap, VA. They had pasta-making day at her house when she was growing up and it took the whole family and all day.
It is sorta off the subject but not entirely; but I refinished our dining table top last week. It was my Grandma’s old oak table. When I got it, it had three coats of paint. I refinished it before we married. That finish lasted about 40 some odd years. Mercy me, it would be something to know how many tons of food has been set out on that table, much of it homegrown and/or homemade.
PS: Did the Deer Hunter’s package arrive ok?
Ahhhhh pizza and homemade at that!!! It looks absolutely delicious! I remember pizza well (before I had IBD/ Crohn’s.) Bread flour is by far the hardest on me and I suppose it’s the proteins. I have a Pampered Chef pizza stone but I never knew it needed heating up prior to use. Lol. I’m supposed to eat zucchini spirals as a substitute for noodles but let’s face it, that is NOT spaghetti noodles. A day in the life of a former pizza fan…
I knew you made good pizza and crust but I didn’t realize you had it down to a fine science. I have one question …in more than one place in this post you mentioned moving the stone carefully. Why carefully, is it fragile?
Miss Cindy-the stone is really hot when you take it from the oven and have to put it back in the oven. I usually set mine on a wooden cutting board while I’m assembling the pizza. The stones can be fragile too. The round one I’ve had for so many years-I think you gave it to me-was accidentally broken when Chitter let it slide out of the dish drainer a few weeks ago. Since then I’ve been using a square stone the Rada company sent me a few years back. It works just as well, the pizza is just square now 🙂
Thanks, Tipper, when I can find some yeast, this will be on top of my To Make list 🙂