Friday Pizza Night! How to Make Your Own

My recently transplanted New Yorker children have bemoaned the lack of good pizza in Cleveland. Frankly I’ve never been a fan of the greasy, crisp NYC stuff, but I had gotten spoiled by all the thin crust gourmet stone oven that more resembles the appetizer you actually find in real Italia. But we’re an Organic/Smart Freedom family, which means we tend to take the easy way out whenever possible, so we’ve been dialing our way to disappointment at every pizza joint in town. But then  we found pre made frozen pizza dough at our beloved Cleveland based grocery, Heinens, and we’ve each been taking turns each Friday, making the pizza.

But making dough isn’t that hard. It takes about the same amount of time it does to trek to the store to get frozen pizza dough and wait in those Friday after work grocery lines. We know you perfectionist Funs can get behind this fun family project and Classics will try anything as long as the results and experience are enjoyable and you don’t already have a stack of Costco frozen pizza in your garage freezer. For you guys and the also impatient/practical Organic/Smart Structures we do suggest the ease of the pre made dough as then it’s just a matter of rolling out the gooey stuff and adding your favorite toppings. In a similar vein our Organic Structure mom used to take the short cut of using toasted English muffins as the pizza base, and as a fan of Stouffer’s french bread pizza, that’s a good idea too.

A few PixieTips to keep in mind

• You don’t need a round pan. Anyone who’s had Sicilian Pizza knows you can roll it out in your rectangular cookie sheet or lipped pan.
• Consider both greasing and flouring the pan the way you do for cake pans. We had a firmly adhered pizza the other weekend when we only greased (however it was my 10 year old who did this so maybe she forgot to grease? Regardless I’m not taking the chance again.)
• We found “pizza” sauce, but frankly I don’t taste the difference between it and regular marinara.
• You can put any of your favorite toppings, but I’ve added a sprinkling of parmesan to the mozzarella and it adds just a nice kick that the kids didn’t notice but I did.
• Most of the recipes say to “stretch the dough” but that was taking way too long, so I used a rolling pin to get it going and then finished with some stretching and maybe a little fun throwing it in the air.
• Definitely invest in a pizza cutter, or be clever and use scissors.

Here’s a simple recipe:

1 packet of active dry yeast
1 teaspoon of sugar
2 teaspoons of salt
2 1/2 cups bread or all purpose flour (bread flour gives you a crispier crust, regular a bit chewier.)
1 cup warm water
2 tablespoons olive oil

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C).

Combine all the dry ingredients first in a big bowl and then slowly add the water and oil. Use a mixer, a Cuisinart or your hands. Have some extra flour on hand if the dough is a little sticky.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and pat or roll into a ball, then put it in a greased bowl, cover it with a moist towel or plastic wrap and let it rise for about an hour. Once it doubles in size take out that end of week frustration and punch it down. Rework it back into a ball and cut it into two. You’ve got enough for two pies, or freeze one of those balls for next week.

Now use your hands or a rolling pin or both to work it into the size of your pan, round or square or rectangular. Make sure it’s greased and dusted with flour, and then spread with desired toppings and bake in preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until golden brown. Let cool for about 5 minutes before serving.