"Like a Big Pizza Pie..."

I suppose I should have had the foresight to use this title for my previous pizza post so I would not be singing in reverse. Oh well.  It's really best that I not sing at all... but, to get to the point...

For our 3rd attempt at homemade pizza, I went with the traditional red sauce with basil and tomato toppings, instead of the chicken alfredo.  I've been experimenting with subtle changes to the dough, and we've decided they are all keepers. I added about 1 teaspoon of molasses in with the honey, olive oil and salt.   I also used only a tiny bit of wheat flour.  M told me this would make the dough lighter, and he was right.  Other changes were made during the cooking process, I pre-heated the cookie sheet (a pizza stone would of course produce better results), and pre-baked the pizza dough for 3 minutes without the toppings (brushed with garlic butter and some grated parmigiano-reggiano).  The taste was great, but I would still like the crust to be crunchier on the bottom and chewier on the inside.   Next time I'll try removing the crust from the baking sheet after the pre-bake, experimenting with some different "thicker" recipes, or even having M throw it on the grill.   Future "Aunt Miss Auburn" shared a recipe on her blog for a BBQ chicken pizza that I'm also going to need to try soon.  Anyone have any pizza crust knowledge they'd like to impart?

Future improvements aside, the pizza was really tasty.  Boris was delicious (although we probably could have used more), I finely chopped him which took away from aesthetics but M did not like the idea of biting into a whole herb (and I see his point).  Click below if you're interested in the recipes... happy pie making!

Revised Pizza Dough

• 1/2 cup lukewarm water added to 3/4 tea active dry yeast.  Allow to sit for a few minutes.


• Whisk in: 1 tea honey, 1 T olive oil, 1 tea salt and 1 tea molasses


• Stir in 1 1/4 cups white flour and HALF of a 1/4 cup of wheat flour.  Fill the rest of the 1/4 cup of wheat flour with white flour (totaling 1 1/2 cups flour, sorry, that was so confusing... you want 1/8 cup of wheat, the rest white flour).  Gotta be a better way to say that.


• Kneed 2-5 minutes.  Form into ball, allow to rise covered in an oiled bowl for 1 1/2 hrs (double in size)


• Punch down, let rise another 15 min.


• Roll out (there has to be a Ludacris joke here somewhere...).

Red Sauce

• 2 T of olive oil over medium heat.  Add 1 tea mined garlic.


• Stir in: 1/2 cup red wine, 8 oz tomato sauce, 6 oz tomato paste, 2 chopped roma tomatoes.


• Season with: S&P, 2 T Italian seasoning, 1 T brown sugar and a dash of red pepper flakes.


• Let reduce over low heat until thickened.

Top pizza crust with sauce, 2 1/2 cups mozzarella, sliced tomatoes and basil.  Bon Appetite!