Homemade Pizza

Happy 4th everyone! It's been awhile since I've put up a recipe. We've been traveling for the past two weeks. We're home now, so it's back to the kitchen for me!

Smitten Kitchen has inspired me to do many things. One of the biggest is making my own dough. I admit; I am kind of baking-phobic. So much measuring! So many possibilities for things to go wrong! But, there's no time like the present to conquer one's cooking fears. In light of that, I decided to try my hand at homemade pizza.

And it wasn't scary at all.

One of the best things about Smitten Kitchen is that she stresses the idea that home cooks have been making dough for centuries without the use of fancy equipment. The fancy equipment, of course, makes the work a little faster. But, if you have a tiny kitchen (like me) and most of your nice cooking equipment is in storage (like me), you don't have to give up on making things from scratch. With that in mind, let the adventure begin!

The only tools I used were a bowl and my clean hands. I don't even have a rolling pin (it's in a box too), so I had to sort of push the dough into a circle-ish shape. It doesn't get much easier than that!

Notes: This pizza was fabulous. It turned out great and I got to enjoy the extra satisfaction of being proud of myself for making it from scratch. The only things I would do differently next time would be (a) add a little more liquid because the dough seemed on the dry side and (b) roll it out with an actual rolling pin. My pressing method worked fine, but the crust was a little uneven in places.

I made my own sauce as well because, if you're going to go, might as well go all the way. I like to sneak vegetables in my sauce whenever I can. The carrots give this sauce a layer of sweetness that would normally require adding sugar. Healthy and delicious? Be still my beating heart!

If you're pressed for time, this probably isn't the recipe for you. It does take anywhere from an hour and a half to two hours for the dough to be ready to put in the oven. But for a weekend night? What could be more fun than homemade pizza?

Ingredients: This dough recipe is adapted only slightly from this one. I doubled it to make a doughy rather than thin crust.

For the dough:
3 cups total flour (1 1/2 white, 1 1/2 wheat)
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 packet dry active yeast
1 cup lukewarm water
2 tablespoons olive oil

For the pizza sauce:
1 can crushed or diced tomatoes
1 1/2 cups grated carrot
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon each of dried parsley, basil, and oregano
1 1/2 tablespoons of onion powder
1 sprig of fresh rosemary
5 sprigs of fresh thyme
Salt
Pepper
Pinch red pepper flake

Directions:

Let's do the sauce first. You could make it ahead if you wanted to and just pull it out of the fridge when you're ready. This sauce makes enough for two pizzas, so you can save the other half in the freezer for the next round.

Grate the carrots first. Add olive oil or butter to the pan and turn the heat to medium. Saute the carrots until they are really tender. You want them to kind of disappear in the sauce a little.

Add your garlic and dried herbs. Then add the tomatoes. You might need to add just a little water if the sauce is too thick. Add the fresh herbs last. You can chop them up like I did, or you can just drop the sprigs in and fish out the stems when you're ready to put it on the pizza. Simmer for at least 20 minutes, but longer is even better if you have the time (and patience) to wait.

Now for the fun part!

Gather the dough ingredients and dump all of them in the bowl (no finesse required). Stir everything together as best you can with your hands. The dough will start to form a loose conglomeration of dough bits.

Not pretty

Dump that ugly mess onto a floured surface. Knead it for a minute or two until it starts to look like dough.  One of the tips I learned from Smitten Kitchen is to put the bowl on top of the dough if you're finding kneading difficult. Just let it sit in time out for a few minutes.

My dough needed a few minutes to think about what it had not done.

Come back, knead some more until it looks like a nice ball.

Much better

Oil your bowl (the very same one you used for mixing; just wipe it out with a paper towel) and put the dough ball back inside. Roll it around in there so it's nicely coated. Cover it with plastic wrap and let it sit on the counter for an hour or two until the dough ball is double its original size. If you have a warm spot in your kitchen, put it there and it will get done faster for you. Since I live in Louisiana, every spot in my kitchen is warm.

Once the dough has doubled, dump the dough back out on the floured surface. Press the air out with your fingers and fold it into a ball again. Let it sit under the plastic wrap for 20 more minutes. Now is the time to preheat your oven. You want high heat. I used 475.

Now it's time to roll it out! I have no rolling pin, so I used a "press and turn" technique.

What? It's kind of a circle. 

Put the dough on a baking sheet. I happen to have a round one, but you can use any shape you have. If you have a pizza stone, use that. Put on your toppings.

We're a pepperoni household, so that's what we used. I also had some cotija cheese from when I made black bean tacos, so I put that on the pizza. It was great.

Getting ready for the big bake.

Put the pizza in at 475 for about 15 minutes. I started mine with the oven rack towards the top and then moved it down about halfway through. It came out perfect.

You cannot imagine how good this smells.

Who wants a slice?