Americans ate pizza yesterday -- one estimate, 4.4 million pies. Why should we be different? Well, for one thing, we weren't watching the super bowl, we went to see "The Iron Lady" with Meryl Streep instead, as I wrote here. But I did make pizza, using my old recipe and my new cookbook stand. I have now stored my recipes on the iPad, and the plexiglass stand keeps splatters away, at least so far. Much better than splashing tomato sauce on the back of the large screen of the desktop computer, which is now upstairs. Plus the screen is right where I need it, not facing some other direction. The result was our cheese pizza with Newman's Own Sockarooni sauce, crushed garlic and extra herbs and fennel seeds, and good imported French and Swiss cheese:
As far as I can see, I've never posted my pizza recipe, and if I can't find it here probably no one can. So here it is.
Pizza Dough
Mix and let stand for 10 minutes:
1 package dry yeast
1 cup water at 105 degrees (test on forearm -- same temp. as baby's bath water)
1 tsp. sugar
Place in food processor, using metal blade:
2 and 2/3 cups flour: up to 2/3 cup can be whole wheat flour
Pinch salt -- optional
1/2 tsp. oil
With food processor running, add the liquid slowly . Process until dough forms a ball and pulls away from sides of bowl. Add more flour if necessary to make this happen. This is a very sticky dough. Knead in more flour if you like, and place in large oiled bowl. Allow to rise for 1 hour at warm room temperature or several hours in refrigerator (if you want to make the dough in advance and go see a movie).
After the dough has risen, oil a round pizza pan and pat dough into place. It will rise a little again while you are placing the toppings on it and heating the oven to 425 degrees F. When the oven is hot, bake for 15 minutes, check for nice brown done crust and browned cheese on top; bake slightly longer if necessary. Allow pizza to firm up for 5 minutes before you cut and serve it.
If you want twice as much pizza dough, make two recipes separately in food processor, do not double recipe.
Alternate proportions for dough: use the same method with 1 and 1/4 cups water, 1 pkg. yeast and pinch salt. For dry ingredients, use 3 and 1/2 to 4 cups flour, no oil. Makes a heavier dough. Allow this to rise 1/2 to 1 hour at warm room temperature, more in refrigerator.
As I said, I topped yesterday's pie with Newman's Own sauce, garlic, herbs, and freshly grated cheese. Other possibilities include using whatever other sauce you prefer (even your own); adding lots of vegetables like onion, olives, sliced tomato, or cooked eggplant; adding salami, meatballs, or ham; or making white pizza with 3-4 oz. goat cheese, herbs, and an egg instead of red sauce and hard cheese.
Pizza Dough
Mix and let stand for 10 minutes:
1 package dry yeast
1 cup water at 105 degrees (test on forearm -- same temp. as baby's bath water)
1 tsp. sugar
Place in food processor, using metal blade:
2 and 2/3 cups flour: up to 2/3 cup can be whole wheat flour
Pinch salt -- optional
1/2 tsp. oil
With food processor running, add the liquid slowly . Process until dough forms a ball and pulls away from sides of bowl. Add more flour if necessary to make this happen. This is a very sticky dough. Knead in more flour if you like, and place in large oiled bowl. Allow to rise for 1 hour at warm room temperature or several hours in refrigerator (if you want to make the dough in advance and go see a movie).
After the dough has risen, oil a round pizza pan and pat dough into place. It will rise a little again while you are placing the toppings on it and heating the oven to 425 degrees F. When the oven is hot, bake for 15 minutes, check for nice brown done crust and browned cheese on top; bake slightly longer if necessary. Allow pizza to firm up for 5 minutes before you cut and serve it.
If you want twice as much pizza dough, make two recipes separately in food processor, do not double recipe.
Alternate proportions for dough: use the same method with 1 and 1/4 cups water, 1 pkg. yeast and pinch salt. For dry ingredients, use 3 and 1/2 to 4 cups flour, no oil. Makes a heavier dough. Allow this to rise 1/2 to 1 hour at warm room temperature, more in refrigerator.
As I said, I topped yesterday's pie with Newman's Own sauce, garlic, herbs, and freshly grated cheese. Other possibilities include using whatever other sauce you prefer (even your own); adding lots of vegetables like onion, olives, sliced tomato, or cooked eggplant; adding salami, meatballs, or ham; or making white pizza with 3-4 oz. goat cheese, herbs, and an egg instead of red sauce and hard cheese.
4.4 million seems very low. Did you mean 44 million? I bought a pepperoni pizza at Costco Sunday because it was $5.99, noticeably less than the cheese pizza next to it that wasn't much bigger. We ate it Monday, with fresh tomatoes, garlic, and basil, and half the pepperoni taken off, for possible use later.
ReplyDeleteI looked for another estimate -- it was 30 million slices of pizza on superbowl day, which is consistent with an estimate of 4.4 million pies.
ReplyDeleteLook at it this way: 44 million pizzas would be more than one slice of pizza per person for every single man, woman, and child in the USA. (The population of the US is 307 million, and the average number of slices in a pizza is 8 to 12.)
Yum. Haven't had pizza in a bit -- this sounds like a terrific one. I love olives on it, too!
ReplyDeleteDon't tell anyone Mae, but I have never made my own pizza. Fact is, I don't really care for it. However, I adore your set-up and your pizza looks very tempting too!
ReplyDeleteI came {this close} to buying an ipad yesterday. Instead, I went with a Macbook Air. We'll see how that goes. Cool so far and it has Facetime like the ipad, lol...