Pizza, let the battle begin

So let me just state this right in the beginning; good homemade pizza is far better than anything you bring home in a box.  I don’t care what Italian dude you know or whose father came over on a boat.  Unless you live within a block, you can do better at home every time.  So let’s break this down into two important parts.  First let’s deal with the crust.  I get accused of not putting recipes in a normal format, so let me type this one in and them we can talk about it.

1 cup water

1 tablespoon yeast

½ teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons olive oil

¼ cup sour cream

3 to 31/2 cups of all-purpose flour.

Mix and kneed; let rise,

Ok so pizza dough in its normal state does not include anything to enrich the recipe.  Things like sugar or butter both affect the texture and taste of the final product and are not generally used in pizza dough.  You may find you like them so try them out.  In my recipe I use sour cream, I am a big sour cream fan so I tried it and it worked well.  This recipe can be make is a dough machine, big mixer, food processor or by hand.  The trick is the kneading, too much is bad but not enough is worse.  So it is real simple kneed until the dough is elastic, thick like bubble gum without being sticky. It needs to stretch without breaking.  This will allow the dough to rise.  When you first start, if you take a piece and pull it instead of stretching it will just break.  Once it becomes elastic it will stretch easily.  The amount of time will vary based upon how you kneed it, but in a mixer or by hand it will be about 5 to 10 minutes.  So kneed, let rise, about 1 hour until it has doubled, no more.  If it rises too much it will start to smell and taste like beer, no, not good.  Break the dough in half.  Throw down some flour and roll into a circle the size you want.  Now we have a couple of different ways to go here.  You can top it and cook it.  You can let it re-rise for a while (until it puffs up a bit) and cook it.  Or you can freeze it for later or another day.  If you freeze it, put flour or cornmeal above and below each layer, separate the layers with parchment paper.  You can easily store 15 or 20 this way and they come apart fine.  So there is my super-secret dough. Next time we will deal with the sauce.  Thank you reading and please leave a comment.