Best Pizza Recipe

Submitted by stevanwhite

"It took me a year to make this recipe with constant tweaks along the way. The sauce is sweet similar to Larosas so if you don’t like that add your own sauce instead. I prefer a half and half mixture of mozzarella cheese and provolone but you can use what you like. It takes about 10-12 ounces of cheese to make pizza. I didn’t include toppings so use what you like. Cooking time varies with amount of toppings and no two ovens are the same. "

 

• Ready In: 2hrs 20mins
• Ingredients: 27
• Yields: 8 Slices
• Serves: 5

ingredients

• Dough

• 1 1⁄2 teaspoons yeast
• 7⁄8 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1⁄8 cups bread flour
• 1⁄4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1⁄2 teaspoon salt
• 1⁄2 teaspoon sugar
• 1⁄2 teaspoon honey
• 150 ml water
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

• Pizza Sauce Recipe

• 1 roma tomato
• 1 3⁄4 cups water
• 1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
• 2 teaspoons of minced garlic
• 1⁄2 teaspoon sweet basil
• 1⁄4 teaspoon oregano
• 1 teaspoon dried onion
• 1⁄4 teaspoon thyme
• 1⁄8 teaspoon parsley
• 1⁄8 teaspoon salt
• 1⁄8 teaspoon pepper
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1⁄2 teaspoon brown sugar
• 1⁄2 teaspoon honey
• 1 tablespoon parmesan cheese
• 1⁄2 teaspoon ketchup

directions

1. Directions for dough:

2. Get a Pyrex measuring cup and pour in the water. Microwave the water for about 30 seconds. Next take the measuring cup out of microwave and stir in the sugar and the honey. Now add the yeast and stir well. Set this aside for about 10-15 minutes.
3. In a mixing bowl mix the dry ingredients: All Purpose Flour, Bread Flour, Baking Powder and Salt. Take about 3/4 of the dry mix out of mixing bowl and set it aside. You should have about a quarter of the mix now left in the  mixing bowl.
4. In the mixing bowl where there is only a quarter of the dry mix add the yeast water, olive oil, balsamic and red wine vinegar. Whisk this together very well for about 20 seconds. Immediately dump the rest of the flour mix into the bowl. I like to use a wooden spoon to mix the rest together.
5. Knead the dough for a good 10-15 minutes. If you have a machine that can knead dough then use that if not look up how to hand knead pizza dough online. You may have to sprinkle a little extra Bread Flour from time to time if it gets too sticky while kneading.
6. Once kneading is finished form the dough into a ball then grease your hands with about a half tablespoon of olive oil and coat the dough ball. Next place the ball of dough into a large bowl and cover with cheese cloth or plastic wrap.
7. Let the dough rise for about an hour in the kitchen then punch it down and knead it again for 10-15 mins and recoat with olive oil.
8. Place the dough in the fridge. In about 45 minutes the dough is ready to be formed to make the pizza.

9. Directions for sauce:

10. This recipe makes enough sauce for about 2 Pizzas.
11. Take the roma tomato and put it into a food processor or blender and make it into a sauce like consistency. Add the tomato you just blended and rest of sauce ingredients into a small cooking pot on the stove. Put on low heat and leave the lid on until it simmers then take off the lid to let some of the water evaporate. Cook on low heat for at least an hour or more (depending on desired consistency). When it’s time to put the sauce on the dough I recommend starting with 3/4 of a cup of sauce I definitely would not use any more more than a cup of sauce.

12. Directions for cooking:

13. Preheat oven to 425 make sure you have a center oven rack placed already.
14. Grease a 16” flat pizza pan lightly with olive oil.
15. Use about a handful of bread flour and coat the counter or wherever you are going to form the dough.
16. If you don’t know how to work dough by hand I suggest looking it up online. This dough is amazing to work with and rolling pins are for the birds.
17. Once you got dough made into pizza crust place on pizza pan. If you stretched too much of the dough and too much over hang then just hold pan about 6 inches in air and drop flat on counter. It will shrink a little that way.
18. Sauce the crust evenly and do not put too much sauce on there as it won’t cook as well. Start with 3/4 cup of sauce and spread evenly. If that looks too light add a tad more.
19. Use about 2/3 of the cheese and evenly coat the crust. Add toppings and add rest of cheese on top (this will help hold toppings together).
20. Cooking time varies as not all ovens are the same. It usually takes about 18 minutes on center rack then move the pizza to bottom rack for 3-4 mins to make the bottom lightly golden.
21. When done let it rest for at least 8 minutes before cutting and serving.