Pizza!

It has been AGES since I've even attempted to make pizza, and frankly I was never any good at it.  I used to have a pizza stone and would have a terrible time with a peel getting the dang things on and off of it, and toppings would leak, and frankly the whole thing seemed like an indulgent waste of time.

Tonight, however, I tried again...Hub had mentioned that it would be fun to make something participatory.  I ended up doing the whole thing (not that I minded) but it's not like Kiddo would want anything but cheese on his anyway.  He was too busy building Bionicles to build a pizza anyway.

Oh, wow, was it good.  Wow!  I've been appalled lately at the price of ordering pizza from the chains, so this experience may have put an end to that practice.  We'll see...

This is the method/recipe I followed, modified slightly from a book called The Complete Book of Pizza which I believe arrived with the pizza stone as a wedding gift from my first marriage. So...an old book, I kind of doubt it's still in print.

2 cups whole wheat flour

2 cups white flour

semolina flour for sprinkling

1 tsp salt

2 pkgs dry yeast

2 tsp honey

1 1/2 cups warm water

4 Tbsp olive oil, separated

• Dissolve the yeast in 1/2 cup warm (not hot) water and add the honey.  Set aside for at least 5 minutes.
  
• Sift the flours and salt into a large bowl
• Make a depression in the flour and add 3 Tbsp of the olive oil and the other cup of warm water, and the yeast mixture.
• Prepare a kneading surface by sprinkling it with semolina flour
• Mix the dough in the bowl with your hands.  When it has combined well enough, transfer the dough to the kneading surface.
• Knead for 8 to 10 minutes.  The dough should be elastic and cohesive.  Breathe deeply, enjoy the transfer of energy to the dough.  My counter is too high, so I stand on a stool which allows me to use pressure and not strain my shoulders.
• Put the final Tbsp of oil in a large clean bowl.  Place the dough in the bowl and turn it so it is coated with the oil.
• Cover the bowl with a clean towel and put in a warm, draft-free place (my laundry room when I'm doing laundry is the only place that works for me) for at least 1 1/2 hours.

Pizza assemblage

• Preheat the oven to 500 F
• Sprinkle the cookie sheets with semolina
• I cut the dough in half and rolled it out as thinly as I could (sprinkling the board and the dough with semolina to avoid sticking) in an oval shape to fit the cookie sheets I was going to use, then transferred the dough by rolling it up on the roller.
• Roll a short edge to keep the toppings in
• Brush the dough with olive oil
• Add a thin layer of marinara sauce
• On one pizza, I put lots and lots of mozzarella (for Kiddo) - probably about 3/4 pound
• On the other, I put slices of fresh tomato, mushrooms, some pepperoni and some zucchini we had sauteed in garlic last week, plus a bit of mozzarella (1/4 pound?) and some feta cheese.
• Baked the cheese pizza for 10 minutes, and the other one with more toppings for about 14 minutes.

Wait a few minutes before cutting to let the cheese coagulate just a bit.