The Best Pizza Dough and Pizza Sauce!

When we were living in Toronto we made some fantastic friends.  We met through work (the man being my husband's boss) and were invited over for lunch out of politeness to get to know each other better.  I had to laugh later on as both couples afterwards had the same conversation of, "those guys seem really cool, I hope we get to know them better" and over the next year and a half we did.  Both families love to cook so we spent a lot of meals together.  One of their standards was their home made pizza.  They make a lot of dough and put out a wide variety of toppings and everyone just goes for it creating.
Since we moved to where we are currently living, I've made home made pizza a couple of times, but it just wasn't the same.  So I emailed Tiffany and asked for her pizza dough recipe.  Tonight we made it and this is it.  This is simply the best pizza dough recipe.  It turns out so well.  The dough rises really nicely and it crisps up well on the crusts.  I paired it with a pizza sauce recipe I found on All Recipes.  It has a 4.5 star rating and I can see why.  It's tasty and a great consistency.
We made 2 pizzas tonight.  The first was the kids' basic cheese.  The second was a little more adventurous (and perfectly delicious).  Half was fig and goat cheese.  The other half was shrimp, sun-dried tomato, onion and feta cheese.  I couldn't pick a favorite, just delicious.

Pizza Dough

1 tablespoon yeast
3 ½ C flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons olive oil

1.       Pour ½ cup warm water in a measuring cup.  Stir in the yeast and let it stand until dissolved and creamy, about 5 minutes.

2.       In a large bowl, combine flour and salt, make a well and fill it with the yeast mixture.  Add olive oil and 1 cup of warm water.  Stir until a rough ball of dough forms.  Turn out of bowl and knead until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes.  You may need to add some flour along the way.

3.       Shape dough into smooth ball, place in a large, oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap.  Let rise until doubled, about 1 hour.  Punch down and divide into 4 balls. Can be frozen up to 3 months. Yields 4 10-inch pizza crusts.


Tiffany's Notes:  makes roughly 2 pounds of dough.  I use about 1 pound of dough per pizza (so my pizzas are bigger than theirs), thus I usually double this recipe.  I often use about 1 ½ C whole wheat flour and 2 cups AP flour per batch.  I usually bake the pizza at about 450.

Pizza Sauce

• 1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
• 6 fluid ounces warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese (I used the stuff out of the shaker)
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 teaspoon anchovy paste (optional) - did not use, would love to try
• 3/4 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon dried marjoram
• 1/4 teaspoon dried basil
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper (did not use - worried about spice for kids)
• 1/8 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes
• salt to taste (left out)

1. In a small bowl, combine tomato paste, water, Parmesan cheese, garlic, honey, anchovy paste, onion powder, oregano, marjoram, basil, ground black pepper, cayenne pepper, red pepper flakes and salt; mix together, breaking up any clumps of cheese.
2. Sauce should sit for 30 minutes to blend flavors; spread over pizza dough and prepare pizza as desired. 

 She has this as a recipe for 1 pizza, it worked well for the 2 that I made without having to double it.

Pizza Biscuits

My 6 year old calls these pizza pucks, my 4 year old just calls them yummy. This is a very easy twist on baking powder biscuits that helps me get a little more meat into my kids diets.

2 Cups Flour
1 tbsp sugar
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1/2 cup chopped pepperoni (I just used one 100 gram pepperoni stick)
1/2 cup grated cheddar
3/4 cup milk

Pre-heat oven to 450*
Mix the dry ingredients together. Use a pastry cutter to add in the margarine until it's really nice a crumbly looking. Add the pepperoni and cheese. Stir in the milk (dough will be quite sticky).
Flour a flat surface and kneed the dough until soft and workable (flour your hands really well too for this). Roll out about 1/2 inch thick. Use a circle cutter (I use one of my kids plastic cups, about 2'' in diameter) to cut out the biscuits. Place on non-stick sprayed sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes. This recipe makes about 16 biscuits.

Pimp my Pizza

Okay, I cannot believe I just used that as a title of one of my blog posts. *LOL* It just popped in my head so there you go. Laugh with me if you will.
So this is about pizza. I love having an easy meal to pop in the oven each week. We have a regular pizza night. I don't order in. I buy frozen. You can get frozen pretty cheap, and much less oily than take out. I get them 3 in a box at Costco for about $12. My kids like plain cheese, but I like my pizza more interesting than that. I really don't like frozen pizzas that already have veggies on them. I'm sorry, but they just don't taste very good. What we do is bake one plain for the kids and then add to the second one for us.
Last night's was soooo delicious. I grated on a little cheddar. Then added some chopped red onion, red pepper, mushrooms and tomato. Finished it up with some crumbled feta and baked it according to the box directions.
The possibilities are endless for pizza. Add as much or as little as you like. Sometimes we just add a little sliced onion and few tomatoes and that does it. Just gives it a little bit extra to make it that much better.

Frozen pizza as is.

Frozen pizza plus!

Pita Pizzas with a Kick - a guest post

My husband has been creating in the kitchen again. Here's his great twist on our pita pizzas!

Cooking never has to be boring. If you cooking is boring and you are tired of the same old flavors then you need to mix it up a bit. One of my favorite ways to mix it up lately is to add a twist of Indian. I used this recipe from AllRecipies.com and added a half a teaspoon of Patak’s Vindaloo Curry Paste. Yum! I kept the quantity small enough so as not to override the flavor of the pizza sauce, but to add a twinge of Indian kick. The result: wow!

Ingredients:

2 Greek Pitas

Pizza Sauce w/ Indian Kick

½ Onion (thinly sliced)

½ Red Pepper (thinly sliced)

Pepperoni

Cheddar (grated)

Feta Cheese (grated)

15 Kalamata Olives

What gives these pita pizzas such a gourmet flavor is the flavor of the ingredients themselves. Lately, Kristen and I have switched from using Red Bell Peppers to Long Sweet Red Peppers. They have a robust flavor. You don’t need a lot of feta cheese to add great flavor.  The onions and peppers are sweet, the feta and the Kalamata olives are bitter and salty. This pizza sauce has a wonderful taste even without the “Indian Kick”, due to the garlic, herbs, and honey. Slice up the vegetables, grate the cheese, remove the pits from the olives and slice them up. (I prefer Kalamata olives in brine to canned sliced olives as they have much more flavor.)

Cover the pitas with as much sauce as you like. Add the pepperoni, onion, pepper, olives, cheese, and then bake at 350 for 20 min. Enjoy your gourmet pita pizzas!

Another variation on these pizzas:

2 Greek Pitas

Pizza Sauce w/ Indian Kick

½ Red Pepper (thinly sliced)

1 shallot (thinly sliced)

¼ Onion (thinly sliced)

½ Jalapeno Pepper (thinly sliced)

1 clove of Garlic (crushed)

6 oz Rotisserie Chicken (cut in chunks)

1 tsp Olive oil

Cheddar Cheese

Feta Cheese

Kalamata olives

In a small fry pan lightly sauté the thinly sliced shallots, onion, garlic, and Jalapeno pepper in Olive oil, and then cool. Cover the pitas with pizza sauce, add onion, garlic, shallot mix, and spread evenly. Add chunks of chicken, red pepper, and Kalamata olives. Finish with cheese and bake at 350 for 20 min on a baking sheet. Enjoy!

Pizza Sauce:

Pizza Sauce Recipe from AllRecipies.com

1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste

6 fluid ounces warm water (110 degrees

F/45 degrees C)

3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

1 teaspoon minced garlic

2 tablespoons honey

1 teaspoon anchovy paste (optional)

3/4 teaspoon onion powder

1/4 teaspoon dried oregano

1/4 teaspoon dried marjoram

1/4 teaspoon dried basil

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/8 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes

salt to taste

In a small bowl, combine tomato paste, water, Parmesan cheese, garlic, honey, anchovy paste, onion powder, oregano, marjoram, basil, ground black pepper, cayenne pepper, red pepper flakes and salt; mix together, breaking up any clumps of cheese.

Sauce should sit for 30 minutes to blend flavors; spread over pizza dough and prepare pizza as desired.

Pizza Pinwheels - School Lunch Idea!

The search for a great lunch for my first grader is officially on.  I answered the challenge with help from Jean Pare.  Jean Pare is the founder of the Canadian company Company's Coming.  I happened upon one of their book collections called Kids Cook.  It is a 3 in 1 collection (Bag Lunches, After School Snacks and Weekend Treats).  These cookbooks were designed with kids in mind.  It is geared to teach kids to cook (ages 8 - 15), but my 6 year old can do a lot of it with a little help from me.  We sat down together and looked through each recipe with him ticking off the ones that appealed most to him.  We decided that the pizza pinwheels would be the first recipe that we would try.  They were quick and easy and tasty.  He's had them in his lunch as the main part each day this week with no complaints.  This will be a repeat recipe for us.

2 1/4 cups Biscuit mix
1/2 cup water
7 1/2 oz can pizza sauce
2 sliced green onions
1/2 cup finely chopped green pepper
1/2 cup finely chopped pepperoni
1 cup grated mozzarella cheese
1/4 tsp dried oregano

Preheat oven to 400*.  Stir the biscuit mix and water in a medium bowl until the dough forms a ball.  Turn dough onto a counter that has been dusted with flour or biscuit mix.  Kneed the dough 20 times.  Roll out to a 12 x 12 inch square.

In a separate bowl, mix the remaining 6 ingredients.  Spread over the dough leaving an inch space all around the edges.  Roll up the dough from one side to the other (like a jelly roll).  Pinch the edges to seal.  Cut into 12 1 inch slices.  Place the slices on a baking sheet that has been sprayed with non-stick spray.  Back for 12 minutes.

BBQ Chicken Pizza

This was one of those 'why didn't I think of this before?' recipes.  I love BBQ chicken pizza, but I've never made it.  It's so easy, I think it may become a regular part of my rotation.

I made 4 of these to enjoy, so you could make 4 different pizzas at once.  I think we'll do that next time and let the boys each do their own.

4 Greek Pitas (the thick ones)
Your favorite BBQ sauce
1 cooked chicken breast - chopped (this was from a rotisserie chicken)
1/4 cup chopped red pepper
1/4 cup chopped onion (red onion would have been even better)
grated cheese (I used cheddar, but mozzarella's traditional)

Place the pitas onto 2 baking sheets.  Spread the ingredients over all of your pitas.  Bake at 350* for 15 minutes, or until cheese is starting to become golden.  Enjoy!