I finally got myself a pizza stone and rolling pin last weekend, and christened them this evening by making delicious pretentious pizzas.
The dough:
- 1 tsp. white sugar
- 1 1/2 cups warm water
- 1 tbsp. active dry yeast
- 1 tbsp. olive oil
- 1 tsp. salt
- 2 cups whole wheat flour
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
The directions:
- Dissolve sugar in warm water in large bowl. Sprinkle yeast over top and let sit for 10 minutes.
- Stir in salt and olive oil, then flour.
- Knead. Cover with towel and let sit in warm place for an hour. Knead. Cover with towel and let sit in warm place for another hour.
- Do other stuff.
- Bake at 425 degrees for about 20 minutes.
The toppings:
- Cut up lots of mozzarella cheese. Put on pizza.
- Cut up a tomato. Put on pizza.
- Tear up a lot of fresh basil. Put on pizza.
I’m not entirely happy with this dough; it’s serviceable but not flavorful. Suggestions for herbs to add that might help? Still, it works out pretty well, especially when rolled thin (in pre-rolling pin eras, I just smooshed it into a pan and it was usually too thick and chewy) and covered with enough cheese to feed an army. Or at least cover said army in cheese.
- Eat.
Wow, your pizza looks soo good! Ours definitely didn’t look as aesthetically pleasing when we tried them. Also, our dough really rose a lot in the oven and turned out kind of fluffy – yours looks much more flat. I wonder if it’s got something to do with the fact that you used your rolling pin to much greater effect than we did (we used cups, our hands, whatever was in the general vicinity). XD Anyway, it looks awesome.
So looking at your pictures I suddenly realize: I bet the crust would come out a lot crispier and happier if you put the pizza stone in the oven as you preheat it, then slide the pizza on when it’s ready–that’s actually what it’s for, retaining heat and pretending you have a brick oven and so on. Makes for a complicated maneuver of pizza from whatever you prepared it on to the baking stone (and same for getting it out) but presuming you don’t have one of those big wooden paddles I hear that clever use of parchment paper can go a long way here.