As a baker, I shy away from making bread. I feel somewhat intimidated by yeast-based recipes and I’ve only ever used yeast a couple of times — once for no-knead bread, and once for classic cinnamon rolls. Then I saw Brooke’s post about her homemade pizza, and I was inspired to try my hand at making pizza from scratch.
I used Giada’s Pizza Dough recipe and followed Brooke’s example of throwing in some chopped fresh rosemary and cheese into the dough while mixing. I had some problems with the dough — it was much too wet, and in hindsight I should have added more flour before attempting to take it out of the food processor. Me struggling with removing the overly sticky dough was not a pretty sight. The recipe didn’t indicate how long or at what temperature the dough should be baked, so I experimented. I decided on 400 degrees for 4 minutes without toppings, and then an additional 15-20 minutes with toppings added (depends on whether you are making a wee 6-inch personal size pizza like the one shown above or a 12-inch). The dough tasted pretty good — the fresh rosemary in it certainly made a difference. A single batch yielded enough for one 6-inch and one 12-inch pizza.
For the sauce, I adapted the Exquisite Pizza Sauce from allrecipes.com based on user reviews. I omitted the honey, anchovy paste, and dried marjorom, and let the sauce sit overnight in the fridge instead of just thirty minutes. It was yummy! This recipe is a definitely keeper.
I kept the toppings simple. I think the key to avoiding soggy pizza is to go light on the toppings. I used a grated three-cheese blend (Romano, Parmesan, and Asiago), mushrooms, bell peppers, olives, and basil.
I had fun making the pizza and it was tasty, so I plan to do it again! Next time, I want to try Smitten Kitchen’s really simple pizza dough. Do you have a favorite pizza dough recipe to share?
