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To make great-tasting
homemade pizza, you need to make great-tasting pizza dough! You can use
any pizza dough recipe you find, or you can go to the
accompanying article (link shown above) to get your free recipe for
Jan's Dough Sourdough Pizza Crust (as illustrated here).
If you are not using Jan's Dough
Sourdough Pizza Crust, use this illustrated tutorial as a guideline for
making pizza crust using the recipe of your choice.
You'll need:
- Jan's Dough Sourdough Starter
- Yeast
- Oil
- Sugar
- Salt
- Regular Flour
- Bread Flour
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Start by combining warm
water, yeast, and one teaspoon of sugar.
Allow this to "proof" (that is, allow
time for the yeast to activate). |
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After proofing, add in
Jan's Dough Sourdough Starter, salt, sugar, and oil.
Stir well. |
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Stir in regular flour,
and then bread flour. |
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Stir until all flour has
been mixed in. |
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Knead pizza dough.
If you are unfamiliar with kneading
dough, then please review my illustrated tutorial:
How To Knead Bread Dough
The process for kneading pizza dough
is the same as kneading bread dough. |
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Knead until the pizza
dough is smooth and dry. You should not have to knead in too much extra
flour so that the dough will be "dry" to the touch. |
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Begin to roll out the
pizza dough. I find that it is easier to use a rolling pin than to
attempt to shape it with your hands. |
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Continue to roll, keeping
the dough in a generally round shape. |
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Roll until the dough is
about 1-1/2" larger in diameter than your pizza pan (for a large pizza). |
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Lay one edge of the
rolled-out pizza dough over the rolling pin to help you put it in the
pizza pan. After using several
types of pizza pans, I've found this non-stick pan, with holes in it, to
be the best. |
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Create the pizza crust by
allowing the edges of the rolled-out dough to line up around the edge of
the pan. If you prefer a crustless pizza, the run a sharp knife around
the perimeter of the pan and cut away the excess dough.
Don't throw that dough out! Cut in small
pieces and bake on a greased cookie sheet. Serve with warmed pizza
sauce. This is a great appetizer! |
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The real secret to making
a great homemade pizza is to pre-bake the pizza crust for about 7
minutes. After 3-4 minutes, turn
the crust in the oven so that it bakes evenly.
Don't pre-bake too long or the crust
will overcook and puff up (from the steam created in between the bottom
and the top of the crust dough. |
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When the crust is
pre-baked (the edges should be only very lightly browned, begin to
"build" the pizza with sauce and your preferred toppings. |
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Spread the sauce evenly
so that it completely covers the crust. Use sauce sparingly is you
prefer a dry pizza or pour it on thick if you enjoy a really saucy
pizza. |
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Layer on pepperoni,
onions and pepper (pre-cooked if you don't like the onion and pepper to
be "crunchy"), sausage, olives, and any other topping you enjoy.
However, do not put on the cheese
at this point. This will prevent the cheese from burning.
If you are making a Hawaiian pizza,
you might prefer to withhold the pineapple at this point as well.
Put the pizza in the over and bake for
about 13 minutes. |
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While the pizza is
baking, sprinkle a pizza stone with cornmeal. If you aren't using a
pizza stone, then you can sprinkle the cornmeal into another pizza pan
(that doesn't have holes in it!).
When the pizza is done baking, you'll be
sliding the pizza crust bottom onto this stone. The cornmeal will
prevent the bottom of the crust from being soggy. |
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After 13 minutes, take
the pizza out of the oven. Add the cheese (and pineapple or any other
very perishable topping). Bake
for about 3 minutes to melt the cheese. |
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Slide the baked pizza
onto the cornmeal coated pizza stone. Allow to sit for 2-3 minutes. |
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Cut with a pizza
cutter... ...and enjoy! |
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If you have enjoyed this
tutorial, then you might like to visit my tutorial for making homemade
bread. Got to:
Making Bread...it's easier than you think! |