May 22, 2009

Party Pizza Friday!

I think I’ve mentioned before that my family orders pizza every Friday night. My husband and I started that tradition when we first met 16 years ago, and through getting engaged, getting married, having 3 kids, its always been a tradition that we look forward to every Friday! That’s why every Friday night at our house is PARTY PIZZA FRIDAY!!

My sister on the other hand makes her own pizza! When we were in our early 20’s we worked at this bar/restaurant in our town, and somehow, my sister ended up helping cook in the kitchen and learned how to make spectacular pizzas. It was a very busy kitchen on the weekends, I’m not sure how many dozens of pizzas went out the door for delivery, but it was a lot!

She had been telling me to try making pizza’s too. “My dough is so easy, anyone can make it!” she urged. Well, I still order out most times for the convenience, but she is right, the dough is perfect, you don’t need to let it rise. Just make it and start making pizzas!

The following is the recipe, as told by my twin sister Biz!

Here is my no rise pizza dough recipe done in the food processor. (or kitchen aid stand up mixer with dough hook!)

2 1/2 to 2 3/4 cup all-purpose flour, divided
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 package active yeast
1 cup warm water
1 tablespoon olive oil

Put 2 cups flour and salt in food processor and pulse. Heat water to 110 degrees. Add yeast and let it sit for 5 minutes until its all nice and bubbly. Add olive oil to yeast/water mixture and stir. Start food processor and slowly pour in yeast mixture. Now, at this point, just eye ball how much extra flour you will need so that it stops sticking to the sides. Once I have enough extra flour added between 1/2 to 3/4 cups), I let it run for about 5 minutes.

When you are done, you have a nice warm delicious ball of dough that is enough for two thin 12 inch pizzas.

My trick for crispy crunchy crust? I prebake my dough at 425 for 7 minutes (on a cookie sheet), remove from oven, add my toppings and then slide my pizza directly on my oven racks on the lowest rack (my oven has coils on the bottom). This creates a lovely cracker crisp crust. Then I let it sit for 5 minutes before slicing. So Yum!

Thanks Biz for sharing your easiest pizza dough ever!