Thursday, February 10, 2011

Homemade Pizza with Friends

Last night Jeff and I invited two of our friends, Jeff and Brianna, over to make personal pizzas together! I've only made homemade pizza dough once and I'll never forget it. As a little girl, I would always spend a week at my grandmother's house in NJ over the summer. One day my aunt who lived down the street taught my sister and I how to make pizza. I was a total mess by the end of the process, but it was a great memory! For Christmas this year, that same aunt gave Jeff and I a pizza kit including some pretty cool ingredients you will see in this post.


I used a recipe that I found in this month's Food Network Magazine, the Italian Issue!


Ingredients: (from the magazine above)
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 1 packet active dry yeast
  • 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
  • 3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
  • 1 1/3 cup warm water
First, whisk the 1 1/3 warm water and the sugar in a bowl; sprinkle the yeast on top. Set aside until foamy, about 10 minutes. Stir in the olive oil.

Then, whisk the flour and salt in a large bowl. Make a well in the center of the flour and pour the yeast in. Gradually stir with a wooden spoon to make a rough dough.

Finally, turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead until smooth and elastic, about5 minutes. Form into 2 balls. Brush 2 large bowls with olive oil, add a ball of dough to each and turn to coat with the oil. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and set aside at room temperature until doubled in size, about 1 hour and 30 minutes.


The recipe made two medium sized pizzas, perfect for 4 people and enough for the boys to have leftovers for lunch today. While the dough is rising, prepare your toppings!


For our toppings we chose: grilled chicken (some with buffalo sauces some not), chopped onions, chopped peppers (red, yellow and orange), pepperoni and mozzarella cheese of course.


Remember the cool ingredients I mentioned earlier? Here is one of them! My aunt gave us oregano straight from Italy from this past summer. It was not only special considering she is the person that taught me how to make pizza, but tasted great.


And if you dare, you could add some anchovies. Our friend Jeff brought these little guys and only Jeff enjoyed them ;) The rest of us passed these up...


After the dough rises for about 1 hour and 30 minutes, prepare the round pizza! Here was Jeff's attempt at throwing the pizza like the professional pizza makers:

Get ready...


Get set...


THROW!


The throw was unsuccessful, but at least he gave it a try. Brianna took the safe route, carefully forming her pizza and crust:


Next, add all of your toppings. Jeff and I were going to split the pizza in half so we could each add the toppings we wanted, but we decided we each liked all of the same toppings!


Bake in the oven at 400-425 degrees for about 15-17 minutes (depending on your oven).


We loved the dough recipe from Food Network. It made just enough for 4 people and wasn't too "doughy." Overall, homemade pizza on our own (without the help of my Italian Aunt) was a success! Maybe next time I'll try homemade sauce too...

4 comments:

Claire said... Best Blogger Tips

I want oregano straight from Italy! :)

GirlyGirlCooks said... Best Blogger Tips

I have that magazine! I'm going to have to try this pizza!

Patricia @ ButterYum said... Best Blogger Tips

After many years, I finally have homemade pizza perfected. Feel free to stop by and check out some of my post "Ten Secrets for Making Pizzeria Quality Pizza at Home"

http://butteryum.blogspot.com/2010/05/10-secrets-for-making-pizzeria-quality.html

Anonymous said... Best Blogger Tips

wow, your pizzas looked wonderful!

could i have a piece?

hee..

congrats..!!

 
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