A couple of weeks ago, I began working as a baker for a local catering company. I'm not the most enthusiastic baker in the world, I actually don't care for cookies very much. As with most food related things, I'm comfortable with baking, it's just tedious. I enjoy making things pretty, which baking lends itself to, and there's a certain amount of creativity there. At any rate, I spend my days baking tons of cookies, a few pies, and the occasional cake. There are worst ways to make a buck.
Anywho, after a long first week, I wanted nothing better than to come home and stuff my face with pizza and nurse a glass of Shiraz. I've taken to buying boxed wines, I'll let you know how that's going in another post.
While frozen pizza does have it's convieniences and can be tasty, I'm a scratch girl. It's healthier and you get exactly what you want on your pizza. I was also craving garlic in a big way (when am I not, really?). The pizza began forming on my 30 minute commute pack to the ol' homestead. I stopped by the store and grabbed a bulb of garlic and some mozzerella cheese. Once home, I reached for my quick and easy pizza dough recipe, it has seriously changed the way I eat pizza! I started by mincing 4 garlic cloves and sauteeing them in a little butter. I threw that down atop the pizza dough, then quickly sauteed the canned tomatoes in the same pan to catch left over garlic flavoring, tossed some sugar and italian seasonings in, gave it a quick stir, then it too went on the crust. I mixed my cheeses then they crowed my lovely pie. After 14ish minutes in a 450 oven, my pizza was cooked to perfection. It took only 25 minutes, start to finish!
Can we say tasty? It married beautifully with my Shiraz. My belly was all kinds of happy!
Pizza dough in a flash!
2.5 cups all purpose flour
1 packet (1 Tbs) active dry yeast
1 cup warm water
2 Tbs oil (preferably a good olive)
1 tsp sugar
a couple of pinches of salt
Mix the yeast, water and sugar in a small bowl. Add half a cup of the flour, and mix until it's smooth. Add the remaining flour, and knead until the dough is a nice, smooth ball...maybe 2 minutes. Let the dough rest while you get the rest of the ingredients for your pizza together. The oven should be at 450. I always like to put a nice thin sprinkling of cornmeal on my baking sheet or pizza stone. It helps the pizza slide off and I like the texture. After you've added your tasty-goodies to the top of the rolled out dough, it only takes about 15 minutes for it to bake to perfection. ****Caution**** When the oven temp is this hot, DO NOT walk away! Keep careful watch over the pizza!!
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