my first pizza (dough)

my first pizza (dough)
Originally uploaded by itslynzee.

what do you do when the holiday projects, decorating, and wrapping are all piling up in the corner crying out to be completed? well, make pizza of course!

i’ve been wanting to make my own pizza dough for ages but i just haven’t gotten up enough gumption to actually make it. lots and lots of premade trader joe’s pizza dough has made it’s way onto my pizza stone but when it comes to homemade i’ve always been a pizza dough flake. the main problem? time. you see when i come home from work i want to eat dinner and i want to eat it two hours ago. my stomach is on a very strict timetable and nothing will stand in it’s way. if dinner is not ready instantly then often i end up eating a box of crackers in lieu of dinner. just because it’s THERE. sad but true.

the other day i actually got it in my head that i would make the pizza dough AHEAD of time! so armed with chubby hubby’s recipe for napoletana pizza dough from his super sunday truffle pizzas post, i set to work. after the first round of mixing and rising i was mighty suspicious. this misshapen lump is going to turn out to be pizza dough? it hardly rose! it’s just sitting in the bowl there looking gray and lifeless! the next morning when i peeked into the fridge however, it was looking a little puffier and full of yeasty goodness.

i invited a friend for dinner and had included the warning that this was my first attempt at homemade pizza dough. luckily this friend of mine never cooks and therefore appreciates anything made in a home kitchen. i separated the dough into balls and contemplated toppings... i had halved the recipe so there were three dough balls to work with.

Ball One: faux margarita pizza (since i had no mozzarella) which included red sauce, fresh basil, parmesan, and pine nuts.

Ball Two: acorn squash puree, feta, caramelized onions, and slivered almonds

Ball Three: red sauce, pepperoni, and corn. both the pepperoni and corn were recovered from the depths of my freezer. hey i was running out of toppings to work with ok?

the oven heated to 550F (setting off the fire alarm on two occasions due to the amount of crusty things on the bottom of my oven) and i baked two of the pizzas on the stone. since there wasn’t any room left on the stone i put the remaining pizza on a silpat and threw it in at the same time as the others. seven minutes later the taste testing began. the crust was thin but at the same time a bit chewy. yum. definitely a recipe for the file.