Pizza

I've been making pizza for almost twenty years, but it was always mediocre at best.  We have perfected pizza on the grill, but I had almost given up on making yummy pizza from the oven.  The crust was soggy, and my kids weren't loving it.  Then we met Joe in Canberra at a work party with the embassy.  Joe is a pizza guru who taught me the trick to great pizza is this pizza paddle.  Here is the method and recipes we use and I can guarantee you will be lovin' pizza in the oven!

 Step 1:  go buy a pizza paddle.  You will also need a pizza stone. Amazon is great.

Step 2:  go buy some parchment/baking paper.

Step 3:  crank up your oven to as hot as it will go.  I usually heat mine at 485-500 F.  You think the house will burn down, but we haven't burned our house down yet :)  You need to put your pizza stone in the cold oven and let it sit in your oven while it reaches 485-500 F.  The pizza stone needs to be in the oven for at least an hour at this temperature before you make your pizzas.

Step 4:  Make your dough.  We use this recipe:
2 cups of warm water

 2 T. sugar

6 T. olive oil

2 tsp. salt

5 tsp. yeast

5 cups flour or more if it is too sticky

Combine yeast, warm water and sugar until yeast bubbles.  Add the rest of the ingredients and knead together.  I just throw everything in my bosch with the dough hook and mix really well, letting the yeast activate first of course.  Let the dough sit for ten minutes.  I have made this recipe so many times, and it will make three pizzas that are a pretty good size.  Our family usually has a few left over pieces.

Step 5:  While the dough is resting for ten minutes, make the sauce.  We use this one from Mel's Kitchen Cafe:

1 can diced tomatoes

1 small can tomato paste

1 tsp. sugar

1 tsp oregano

1 tsp basil

1 tsp garlic salt

pinch of red pepper flakes

Mix everything in a food processor until smooth.

Step 6:  Tear off a piece of parchment paper.  Spray it with PAM. 

Roll out your pizza dough on the parchment paper and make your pizza right there.  See how this parchment paper is brown around the edges? You can reuse the paper so you don't go through as much paper if you are making a lot of pizza. After your pizza is finished, use the paddle and put the pizza (make sure you get the parchment paper too) on the very hot stone in your oven.  It will cook pretty fast because the oven is so hot.  Check it after about ten minutes.

 Take the pizza and parchment paper out of the oven with your paddle, and you have just made the best pizza we have ever made.  The crust will be crisp, and you can lose that phone number for Domino's :)