Tuesday, September 09, 2008

You Asked For It...

The PERFECT PIZZA DOUGH recipe, that is. So, here it is. I got it from the Bosch Newsletter, and it is perfect for my Bosch Universal mixer. But any mixer will do, as long as you have a dough hook attachment. :-)

PERFECT PIZZA DOUGH:

*3 cups hot water *2 Tbsp. honey *6 to 8 cups flour (can be white, wheat, etc.) 1 Tbsp. dough enhancer * 1 Tbsp. SAF yeast *1 Tbsp salt

(If you don't have dough enhancer, no worries, I accidentally ommitted it one time and the dough was still very good)

Place water, honey and 3 cups of flour in mixing bowl with the dough hook. Mix until paste consistency. Add yeast and salt. Add additional flour quickly, 1 cup at a time only until mixture pulls away from sides of the bowl. You may not need to add entire amount of flour or you may need to add a bit more, depending on your climate, elevation, etc. If using white flour, knead with dough hook for 5 min. If using half white half wheat: knead 8 min. If using whole wheat flour, knead 10 min. Add dough enhancer the LAST TWO minutes of kneading. Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Roll crusts to desired shapes and sizes. Add favorite toppings and bake on pizza stone or in pizza pan for 7 min, until edges start to brown.

**A HINT: Hubby and I found that when we used a pizza stone, the bottom didn't cook well in our oven. So, we put the crust in by itself for 5 minutes, then brought it out and put the sauce and toppings on, and put it back in, and the bottom was fine.

This dough recipe will provide enough dough for three large pizzas. If you want half that, you can half the recipe. It doesn't require the dough to raise, you can immediately make pizza out of it. But to be on the safe side, Hubby and I let it rest for 15 minutes. It's your personal choice.

It's DE-LISH! You can make breadsticks out of it too. I twisted mine, brushed them with fresh garlic and melted butter, and they were divine. Or you can smother them with cheese. YUM!!!


UPDATE: Karen asked what "Dough Enhancer" is. Basically, Dough Enhancer contains all-natural ingredients and improves texture and shelf life of breads. You can get it at bakery stores, I ordered mine online from Bluechipgroup.net. It comes in a can, like this:

Whenever I make wheat bread, it always seems to help it keep longer. Also, the texture is "better." It's a good one to have on your shelves, if you bake a lot of breads and rolls from scratch.

2 comments:

Aimee said...

Homemade pizza tip:
Crank your oven to the highest temperature and put your stone in for 45 minutes to preheat. It will be hot, hot, hot! Roll your dough to the size of the stone and lay the dough onto the hot stone. Add sauce and toppings to the crust while the stone is still in the oven. (Have I mentioned you need to do this on a cool day, because the whole process makes the chef quite hot?!) Close the oven door and if your crust is thin, the pizza will cook quickly. This is the easiest way we've found to transfer the dough to the stone with toppings...you just don't!

Unknown said...

Thanks so much!! Although, I consider myself pretty well versed in the kitchen...but what is dough enhancer??? I've never heard of it!