Food Friday's ~ Baked in a Box: Homemade Pizza

Pizza! Pizza! Pizza! Homemade pizzas, flat crusts of deliciousness some with cheese and some without. Pizza without cheese? I know it does sound a bit odd, you may even be wandering if it's still technically a pizza or if it's just baked veggie bread. Frankly, I'm not really sure but my husband really doesn't like cheese and since I love him so very dearly I've learned to create pizzas without cheese. They are a bit messy as there's no cheese melted on top to make everything stick together nicely, but they're pretty and husband palate approved.

It may still be bothering you that my husband doesn't like cheese, but actually it's quite common here for people to not really enjoy dairy products of any kind, especially strong flavors such as cheese, classic yogurt, cream or whole milk. It was actually a bit of a culture shock for me when I first came to China almost 4 years ago. Most things I adjusted rather well to, but part of me still feels confused at such a large country that likes to utilizing every part of everything in their diet, and yet has nothing of dairy in their traditional culture. But I digress, on to the pizzas!


Let's get rolling! First you'll have to make your dough it needs about an hour to rise, so if you make it first it should be just about ready when you've finished preparing your toppings and cleaning up the mess. I try to clean as I go, especially because the kitchen is so small but I'm not very good at it, also I apologize in advance my kitchen has terrible lighting!

So first we are going to mix our yeast and warm water and sugar, now I'm not sure if this yeast was just really fresh or if my warm water was at the magic temperature but this is the first time I've ever seen it bubble so much. Let sit like this about 5 min.

Next we get to add in everything but the flour! More warm water, salt, olive oil and white vinegar.

Then we're going to add our flour until a slightly sticky ball forms, when this happens kneed it for a few minutes till it gets smooth and just barely sticky. Put it in a bowl in warm place (warmest place you can find, I don't really have a "warm place" in my kitchen) cover with a dry towel and let stand for about 1 hour.

While you're waiting get those toppings ready! Wash and chop your veggies, if you want some meat get that cooked up and ready to it's job!

After an hour or so your dough should look like this! Next you need to separate role and pre-bake.

If you are lucky enough to have a real oven with a pizza stone or pizza pan great! If not and upside down cookie sheet will do just fine! Cook your dough until it's just not sticky,  and you can slide it easily off the pan.

Time to top and bake! Have fun and keep an eye on them, you don't want any burnt pizza!

And now that they're done, it's dinner time! Hope you enjoy!

Ingredients

2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast

2 tsp sugar

1 1/2 cups warm water

3 Tbsp olive oil

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp white vinegar

3 3/4 - 4 cups flour

Instructions

1. In a large bowl of a stand mixer combine 1/2 cup of the warm water with the sugar and yeast. Stir to dissolve the yeast and let rest for 5 minutes.
2. Add the remaining 1 cup of warm water, and the olive oil, salt and vinegar.
3. Begin mixing on medium-low speed and gradually add the flour after ball forms, knead for about 5 minutes, or until the dough is smooth and elastic (it should be sticky, but not so sticky that it sticks to your clean fingertip.) Cover the bowl with a dry towel and allow to rest in a warm place until doubled in volume--about 1 hour.
4. Gently punch the dough down and place on a floured counter top. Divide the dough into 3 equal pieces (mine made 6, but that's because mine were toaster oven size). Roll and stretch your dough to desired size and thickness. Preheat your oven to 450 degrees F and brush dough lightly with olive oil, if you have a toaster oven put it on the lowest setting.
5. Pre-bake the dough on a pizza stone or in pizza pan for 6 minutes (or less, watch the first one, mine took about 2 minutes). Remove from oven and add toppings. Return to oven and bake for 8-12 more minutes or until the crust is golden brown and the cheese is bubbly.

This is not my recipe though I have changed it just a bit, the original is over here at Tastes Better from Scratch. Have fun and make some yummy pizzas!