Home made pan pizza

I've missed pizza. It was something that I avoided since starting my diet of mostly home made and organic food. Prepackaged food and regular take out have almost entirely become a thing of the past for me, and my health has benefited very much from it. My blood pressure is normal, I've lost 17 lbs. and my cholesterol is now back to a nice and healthy normal level. I won't lie, this was definitely a labour of love, but it was oh so worth it. Yes, it's easier to pick up the phone and order from a pizzeria, but I love knowing what goes into my food. So this is what two and a half hours produced:



It was crispy on the bottom, tender chewy in the middle, and the sauce had a pleasant tang to it. The crust was perfect.

The only things I did not make from scratch on this pizza were:

Mozarella cheese (but I shredded it)
Pepperoni
Mushrooms, red bell pepper, and sliced olives

But I made the sauce and the dough from scratch, and those two are probably the most important parts of the pizza. Bland dough and bland sauce, and you'll have the equivalent of toppings on a cardboard box.

The recipes for the sauce and dough are below. Now, I'm going to enjoy my second slice, because yes, the first one was pure bliss. Pizza Hut, I never have to order your pan crust again.



Before the pizzas went into the oven:





Sauce: Inspired by the 2 lbs. of cherry tomatoes my parents had in their garden.

Split the tomatoes in half, lay out on parchment paper on a baking sheet (makes for super easy clean up) and sprinkle with the following, enough to cover (measurements were all eyeballed):

kosher salt, fresh cracked black pepper, dried Italian herbs (oregano, basil, parsley), 2 cloves of fresh minced garlic, 1 small onion, minced, and drizzle olive oil over everything. Set into oven at 350 degrees for an hour, or until they look dry and shriveled. I wish I'd taken a photo of this, they looked scrumptious. Normally I'd use roma tomatoes, skinned and seeded, but cherry tomatoes are a pain to skin and seed so the next part addresses the issue.

Once they're nicely roasted, place into a food processor and blitz until you get a nice paste consistency. If you find that it's too thick, drizzle in some olive oil until it's thinned out a bit. Season to taste.

Dough: I had to look this one up but it was highly rated. I use my KitchenAid pro stand mixer with the dough hook attachment for this.

2 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 tablespoon sugar (I use raw brown sugar -- you can use granulated white though if you prefer)
1.5 cups scalded milk, cooled to 110 degrees (any hotter and you kill the yeast)

Combine all 3 until the yeast proofs, about 5 minutes. You also want to scald the milk, because the enzyme protease will interfere with how dough rises. I've learned so much since I started baking my own bread :)

Once the yeast proofs, add 4.5 cups of strong bread flour (I use the kind you can buy at Costco, it's by ConAgra foods) and 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Knead on the #2 speed setting for about 7 minutes, until the dough is a nice smooth elastic ball. I leave my dough in the bowl while it rises, so loosely cover with plastic wrap and let sit for an hour.

What, no salt? That comes next. Adding salt early in the mix can kill the yeast, which won't give you a very good initial rise. You want those suckers to burp and fart out all that CO2 so you get a nice and fluffy dough texture. So you add the salt after the dough has gone through the autolyse.

After the dough has doubled, you can punch it down and add salt and knead, but my carpal tunnel goes nuts so I just turn on the mixer again, add 1 tsp. of salt and knead for 4 minutes. Divide this ball into 2, and roll them out to fit your pans.

Pizza Prep: Finally!

I used two 12" tart pans for the pizza. The more you grease the pan, the greasier the crust is (ala Pizza Hut) because you're essentially "frying" the dough in the oil. To do this you can oil the pans with 3-4 tbsp. of olive oil, but I was going for healthier. lighter fare, so I only used about 1 tbsp. for each pan. Press the dough into the pan, cover and let rise (this is the 2nd rise), while you prep the rest of the pizza.

Degrease the pepperoni by laying it out on paper towels in a single layer and nuking it in the microwave for about 25 seconds. YOU WANT TO DO THIS TO YOUR PEPPERONI. You know how sometimes you go out for pizza and the top of it is an oil slick, filled with pools of red oil? That's from pepperoni that hasn't been prepped this way first. If greasy pizza is your thing, then skip this step.

Shred your cheese, chop your bell peppers and mushrooms, and get your other toppings ready and by the time you're done with all this prep, your dough should be ready for THE LOVIN.

I use a spatula to spread the sauce. I try to get it as even as possible. Then I layer the cheese, pepperoni, olives, veggies, and pop into a 500 degree preheated oven for about 15-18 minutes. The result?

ABSOLUTE BLISS. Also, the satisfaction of knowing that you created something that's almost preservative free (barring what you get from the cheese, meats, and canned olives). Either way, it's something I'm definitely going to do again.