Pizza partay

We had a pizza party last night. Well, not so much a party as just having delicious homemade pizza for dinner. But using a new dough made it seem more festive somehow. Something had been missing from previous homemade dough attempts - the crust didn't just lend itself to making pizza as well as I'd have liked - not too much flavor, not v. stretchy. So, I broadened my horizons and sought out a new recipe. Tonight's efforts were well worth the moderate additional effort to make this dough. I decided to trust Mr. Batali and give his dough a whirl.

First, you bloom the yeast in a mixture of warm water and wine. Yes, wine. Last night, I used a pinot grigio, but in the future, I may try a red. Then you add honey, salt, and 1 c of flour (oh, this is all by hand - NO MIXER)

Next, you blend in the remaining 2 c of flour until you can no longer stir
Then roll out onto a floured board and hand knead for about 7 minutes - the dough came together amazingly well given the ragged, floury state of it out of the mixing bowl.Then, after a 45 minute rise*, you are ready to make the pizza.

This dough was beautiful to work with - v. stretchy, yet pliable. Not stiff. It easily rolled into whatever abstract form I desired. Then I put a bit of sauce and a bit of pesto on top.

Then some pepperoni and tomatoes, and cheese, of course

10 minutes in a 475 degree oven and we were ready to slam it. This was Mr. R's personal pizza.


And here is mine. I was constrained by the fact that I couldn't find any of my flat normal cookie sheets, so I had to use a short narrow one. Hence, the long rectangle of 'za.

This dough was really good. Easy to make and work and it had more flavor than your standard homemade dough. The thin parts were crackery** yet tender and the thicker parts of the crust had a nice chewy texture. Will DEF be making this again.


*I decided the cold oven wasn't exactly warm enough for the dough to rise, so I turned the oven on, intending to let it run for about 30 seconds, then turn it back off. 10 minutes later the oven beeped to let me know it had reached 350 degrees. I FLEW to the stove to turn it off and rescue my potentially dead dough. It DID get a bit dry on top, but it kept rising in the fridge, so the little yeasties were still alive apparently. Do not do this yourselves.

** The thinner crust was decidedly similar to a certain Barnaby's pizza in South Bend, IN. So a certain father of mine should make it soon.