Pizza!

Pre-Baking--Pretty!

LCBF and I are currently visiting my parents, which means I am back in the land of cups, ounces, and Fahrenheit. And mom's kitchen has full-sized appliances! It's all very exciting. Today her new Cuisinart food processor arrived and I took it for a whirl, making up some pizza dough (and a couple pie crusts--but that's tomorrow's post).

It's the 12-cup size, so it's a bit of beast:

The base is massive and very heavy, but the machine itself is very quiet. I think I'm still partial to my beloved european Phillips model, however. At any rate, recipe for dough and  Spinach, Tomato, Feta Pizza after the jump:

 Pizza Dough*
(makes enough for 3 pizzas; should you not be having a pizza party, I suggest freezing one or two of these dough balls)
5 cups flour + extra for dusting
1 1/2 tsp. sea salt
1 (1/4-oz.) packet active dry yeast
1 1/2 c. warm water (100-110 degrees F--or follow the directions on your yeast envelope)
2-3 tbl. water
olive oil

Fit food processor with plastic dough blade (the big metal one will work too, if that's all you have). Add 5 cups flour and 1 1/2 tsp. sea salt to the bowl of the processor and pulse a few times to combine.

Add the packet of yeast to the warm water and stir until dissolved. Add dissolved yeast to the flour mixture and process until the dough begins to come together into a ball. If the mixture is too dry, slowly add water (a couple tbl. at a time) through the feed tube while the machine is running until a ball starts to form. If it's too wet, add a little flour.

Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and give it a few shoves with the heel of your hand to knead it. Form it into a ball and place in lightly oiled bowl. Cover loosely with plastic wrap (or a towel) and set aside to let rise for a couple hours until doubled in size.

Ready to Rise

At this point, I took an accidental nap and three hours later awoke to this:

It was fine.

Take your now ginormous ball of dough and give it a good punch in the middle to deflate it a bit.

Pow!

After you've knocked the air out of it, pull it apart into thirds. Shape each third into a smaller ball and place in lightly oiled smaller bowls. Cover and let rest again while preparing ingredients for your pizza (30-60 minutes).

When ready to prepare your pizza, pat the dough into a flat disc on a lightly-floured surface, then stretch it out using the backs of your hands/knuckles. Alternatively, you could use a rolling pin. It's not an exact art (well, not to me at least).

 Streeeeetch it!

(Action photos courtesy of LCBF)

Place dough onto pizza pan or cookie sheet to form crust.

Top, bake, and serve (see recipe for spinach, tomato, and feta pizza below).

*adapted from this recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/pizza-dough-recipe/index.html

Spinach, Tomato, and Feta Pizza
1 ball pizza dough
1/2 bunch of fresh spinach, washed and stemmed
2-3 fresh tomatoes, sliced
several fresh basil leaves, rinsed
feta cheese
2-3 tbl. olive oil
1-2 tbl. balsamic vinegar
salt & pepper

Preheat oven to 425F

Stretch (or roll, or press) out pizza dough and place onto either a round pizza pan or regular square cookie sheet.

Brush entire crust with olive oil and balsamic vinegar until covered. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Place spinach leaves in a single layer, covering crust. Place sliced tomatoes and basil leaves on top of spinach leaves and sprinkle crumbled feta over all.

Bake for 10-15 min. until crispy.*

*I should note that we're not entirely sure about mom's oven temp. I think that it's probably better to cook these at 450F for 7-10 min. If you're not sure about your oven's true temperature though, experimenting from 425F means you won't wind up with burnt pizza.

Mom is concerned that I do not feed LCBF any meat and likes to feed him small quantities at every meal to make up for all our vegetarian dinners at home. She calls it "man meat" (I know, y'all. I know). This was her pizza:

Spicy tomato sauce, pepperoni, sliced mushrooms, mozzarella, cheddar, and jack cheese. LCBF ate both.