Inspired by Em's recent homemade calzones, DY and I whipped up some homemade pizza for lunch today. I like my pizza with a thin crust, while he likes his nice and fluffy, so we each made our own pizza.
Pre-Baked
Post-BakedPizza, Updated from Smitten Kitchen
Verdict: Win
I loved this pizza crust. I liked how the bottom was perfectly crisped with those beautiful brown spots. I scaled up the ingredients by 2/3rds to make a large 16 inch pizza. I also substituted white wine with water. The dough was a little dry, so I added one extra tablespoon of water. I used active dry yeast, which usually is a fail for me, but it turned out well despite the dough not rising very much. I like how the recipe called for honey, and all in all it was delicious. I baked the pizza at 475 degrees F (I was scared to use 500, our smoke detectors are super sensitive. They still went off anyway) for roughly 10 minutes. Next time I'm going to bake the crust for a few minutes first (the top of the dough might have been undercooked), and then add the toppings (green peppers, jalapeño peppers, pepperoni, and mozzarella cheese last) to be baked. I'm also going to put the pizza closer to the bottom of the oven.
Verdict: Win
Sooooo tasty! I reduced a 29 oz can of tomato sauce until about half of its volume was left (instead of using tomato paste) to make the sauce thicker, and then added the ingredients from the exquisite pizza sauce recipe. I omitted water (already pretty watery), cheese, anchovy paste, ground black pepper (I was short on this), and salt. I substituted the minced garlic with a dash garlic powder, to make the sauce smoother (that, and I didn't want to mince garlic). The oregano made the pizza smell like real pizza sauce and deliciousness. I loved the red pepper flakes (1 packet crushed red peppers from Dominos haha)and cayenne for the little kick they added to the sauce. With the 29 oz can of tomato sauce,I made enough pizza sauce for 2 large pizzas.
Verdict: Win
DY treated this dough like his baby. He watched the yeast foam in warm water, delicately knead the dough, and coaxed his baby to rise by putting the bowl in warm water and dancing a little jig. He added Italian seasoning we had on hand to the dough before they rising process. His dough was a lot wetter and stickier than mine, so he might add more flour next time. His pizza was cooked at a lower temperature than mine, 350 degrees F, and for a longer time. It didn't turn out as fluffy as he would've liked, so next time he'll probably use instant rise yeast instead of active dry yeast. But it was still pretty tasty!
...and we still have enough leftovers for dinner :)