Paper Palate

I’m going to go out on a limb here, and call another WellFed author for being bogus. If you read the article Will Work For Pizza at the end you get a typical homemade pizza recipe. This will leave you with homemade pizza. It will not be something your friends rave about, and it will not satisfy your pizza urges like going to a real pizza shop will. This is where American Pie comes in. For example, your pizza should be well cooked before 10 minutes have gone past. If it takes 20, you’re hosed.

There are all sorts of tips that lead you to making “real” pizza, but the first and most important one is this: turn your oven on as hot as it will go, and leave your stone in there for at least an hour before you make a pizza. This alone will change your world. But there is more.

I’m not going to tell you everything of course, because I want you to buy the book, but suffice it to say that after reading and digesting American Pie, my pizza is world-changing.

Here’s the basics for the New York Pizza Dough. My sourdough is still in-progress.

Take your 5 cups flour, your 1 1/2 tsp instant yeast, a tsp and a half sugar ( I like brown in this recipe ), 1 1/2 tsp salt, 3 tbsp oil ( don’t go using something too strong, stick with extra light olive oil or canola ), 1 3/4 cup room temperature water and mix it all together in a bowl. Uh, a mixing bowl. Anyway. Once combined into a rough dough, either throw it in your KitchenAid, or on your counter and have at it. With the KitchenAid, go 5 minutes on number 2 ( I’ve got the 450 Watt model, basically you want it to be kneading. If it’s not, then fool with it until it is. ) Then let your dough rest for 5 minutes, and mix for 2 more minutes. By hand this is going to take longer, but the concepts are the same. Frankly, if you’re mixing by hand you should be comfortable with making dough. Check for the windowpane ( mentioned in the book but also in Bread Baker’s Apprentice ), basically try and stretch a small piece of dough until you can see the light through it. If it tears, keep kneading.

By the way, you want to do all this the day before you want pizza.

Let your dough sit for 15 minutes, and then toss it in the fridge. Two hours before you want to bake, pull it out. An hour before, turn your oven as high as it will go. When you’re ready to cook, stretch your pie ( like you see in the pizzeria, flour on your hands helps quite a bit ), add some toppings ( or not ), toss it in and let her rip. Mine have been taking about 6 - 7 minutes, at 550, on a thin $20 stone. Watch it closely! There is a small window of perfection and you don’t want to miss it. Once you pull it, let it set for a minute or two before you cut so your toppings don’t slide off into a puddle.

Be wary of a few things. One, not too many toppings. Two, be really lean on the sauce. Three, don’t go too nuts with the cheese. Anything that adds a lot of grease is going to screw with your pizza. Four, practice simply and get the basics down. They are simple rules, but take some getting used to. It’s like anything else, you’ve got to know the rules to break the rules.