Pizza dough and sauce

[cocky0]

@FurmanCock Enjoy!

Pizza Dough
*** This is a wet dough, and it's tough to work with for a beginner. Look up Joshua Weissman on Youtube for bread making tips.***

700g  bread flour
520g  water
20g  salt
1 packet instant or active dried yeast
20g sugar
a few tablespoons of olive oil (I never measure this)

Mix the flour, sugar, yeast, and water until the dough just starts to come together. Cover and let it sit for 30 minutes to hydrate.

Add the salt and then knead with a stand mixer for 15-20 minutes on #2 or #3. If you don't have a stand mixer, then you'll need to watch how to do a slap and fold. It's tough to do at first since this is a very wet dough, but the purists swear by it.

Form the dough into a giant boule, and place into a large oiled mixing bowl. Drizzle more oil over the top of the dough, cover, and refrigerate for at least a day, but it's better after 2 days. Every 12 hours or so, do a stretch and fold with the dough to help with gluten production.

At least a few hours before it's pizza time, divide your dough into portions:

200g dough for 10"
288g dough for 12"
392g dough for 14"
512g dough for 16"

I am usually able to get 3 14" pies out of this batch of dough with a little leftover.

With a little flour, form these portions into smaller boules and place them into oiled bowls with more oil drizzled on top before putting them back into the fridge. Once it's pizza time, just pull out the dough balls, flatten them into pizzas, and place them onto your pizza screens. Sauce + cheese + toppings, and bake 10-15 minutes at 525. As long as you don't go too crazy with the flour during the portioning stage, you should wind up with a nice crispy crust with a tender interior.

If you have a hard time working with this dough, you can cut back on the water a bit to make an easier dough. (no lower than 420g though) It won't crisp up the same way, but it'll still be good.

Basic Tomato sauce:

1 large can of whole San Marzano tomatoes or 10 good sized fresh romas
1 large onion diced (red is traditional, but any will do)
3 or 4 carrots diced
2 or 3 celery stalks diced
3 or 4 cloves of garlic minced (or more if you want)
A few chiffonades of fresh basil or a tsp or two of dried
1-2 tsp kosher salt
1 tbsp olive oil + more for lubing the pan
1 cup of red wine (I grab a pretty sweet one for this. Duplin Carolina Red is usually in my house somewhere. You can also use regular old grape juice in a pinch)

Slice all of the tomatoes in half long ways and place into an oiled oven safe dish. Broil them until they just begin to char a little.

Meanwhile, sweat the onions, carrots, and celery along with the salt and the remaining oil over medium low heat until they are very very soft. (Around 15 minutes) Add in the garlic and basil during the last minute or two. Deglaze with the wine and add everything, including the tomatoes into a blender to blend until smooth. I actually leave it all in the pot and use a stick blender for this part. Or if you prefer your sauce chunky, you can just use a potato masher.

Once it's blended to your desired consistency, you can taste for any other seasonings. By itself, it makes a dandy pizza sauce or even better as a part of bolognese. And if you're anything like me, store-bought jars of sauce have me reaching for the Tums a short while later. This sauce does not do that to me.

 

[FurmanCock]

Thanks, cocky0.  The "gravy" sounds delicious.  I'm trying to cut way down on my processed sugar -- and the store bought jars are just loaded, so this recipe will be tried.  The pizza dough recipe sounds like a work of dedication...I'm not sure I have that much commitment to good dough.  Admittedly, I'm not much of a baker.  How long would the dough last, and how would you keep it?  Not sure if you could freeze it or not -- otherwise, I'd have to try to reduce all of the ingredients by 2/3s.

 

[cocky0]

Thanks, cocky0.  The "gravy" sounds delicious.  I'm trying to cut way down on my processed sugar -- and the store bought jars are just loaded, so this recipe will be tried.  The pizza dough recipe sounds like a work of dedication...I'm not sure I have that much commitment to good dough.  Admittedly, I'm not much of a baker.  How long would the dough last, and how would you keep it?  Not sure if you could freeze it or not -- otherwise, I'd have to try to reduce all of the ingredients by 2/3s.

You should be able to freeze it with no issues. Chill it in the fridge first, and then portion and freeze what you don't need in Ziplock bags. Once you're ready to use it, thaw out your individual pieces in the fridge at least a day in advanced. Like I said, wet dough can be a bitch to work with. So you can always cut down on the water to make it easier. And if all else fails, pita bread or even naan makes a pretty good pizza crust. I use that when I don't feel like mucking about with dough.

That sauce is actually pretty sweet without any added sugar. It's one of the things I like about it. If you think the wine might make it too sweet, you can always go for something like a Merlot which is nowhere near as sweet as that Carolina Red. The broiling of the tomatoes and sweating of the onions will give you enough sweetness to counter any tartness in the sauce.
 

 

[Ledcock]

@FurmanCock Enjoy!

Pizza Dough
*** This is a wet dough, and it's tough to work with for a beginner. Look up Joshua Weissman on Youtube for bread making tips.***

700g  bread flour
520g  water
20g  salt
1 packet instant or active dried yeast
20g sugar
a few tablespoons of olive oil (I never measure this)

Mix the flour, sugar, yeast, and water until the dough just starts to come together. Cover and let it sit for 30 minutes to hydrate.

Add the salt and then knead with a stand mixer for 15-20 minutes on #2 or #3. If you don't have a stand mixer, then you'll need to watch how to do a slap and fold. It's tough to do at first since this is a very wet dough, but the purists swear by it.

Form the dough into a giant boule, and place into a large oiled mixing bowl. Drizzle more oil over the top of the dough, cover, and refrigerate for at least a day, but it's better after 2 days. Every 12 hours or so, do a stretch and fold with the dough to help with gluten production.

At least a few hours before it's pizza time, divide your dough into portions:

200g dough for 10"
288g dough for 12"
392g dough for 14"
512g dough for 16"

I am usually able to get 3 14" pies out of this batch of dough with a little leftover.

With a little flour, form these portions into smaller boules and place them into oiled bowls with more oil drizzled on top before putting them back into the fridge. Once it's pizza time, just pull out the dough balls, flatten them into pizzas, and place them onto your pizza screens. Sauce + cheese + toppings, and bake 10-15 minutes at 525. As long as you don't go too crazy with the flour during the portioning stage, you should wind up with a nice crispy crust with a tender interior.

If you have a hard time working with this dough, you can cut back on the water a bit to make an easier dough. (no lower than 420g though) It won't crisp up the same way, but it'll still be good.

Basic Tomato sauce:

1 large can of whole San Marzano tomatoes or 10 good sized fresh romas
1 large onion diced (red is traditional, but any will do)
3 or 4 carrots diced
2 or 3 celery stalks diced
3 or 4 cloves of garlic minced (or more if you want)
A few chiffonades of fresh basil or a tsp or two of dried
1-2 tsp kosher salt
1 tbsp olive oil + more for lubing the pan
1 cup of red wine (I grab a pretty sweet one for this. Duplin Carolina Red is usually in my house somewhere. You can also use regular old grape juice in a pinch)

Slice all of the tomatoes in half long ways and place into an oiled oven safe dish. Broil them until they just begin to char a little.

Meanwhile, sweat the onions, carrots, and celery along with the salt and the remaining oil over medium low heat until they are very very soft. (Around 15 minutes) Add in the garlic and basil during the last minute or two. Deglaze with the wine and add everything, including the tomatoes into a blender to blend until smooth. I actually leave it all in the pot and use a stick blender for this part. Or if you prefer your sauce chunky, you can just use a potato masher.

Once it's blended to your desired consistency, you can taste for any other seasonings. By itself, it makes a dandy pizza sauce or even better as a part of bolognese. And if you're anything like me, store-bought jars of sauce have me reaching for the Tums a short while later. This sauce does not do that to me.

I think you might be putting too much sauce on your pizza.  Try just putting enough to "wet" the top.  On about a 12 inch dough I put close to a teaspoon of sauce, just enough to "wet" the dough.

 

[Spur's Addiction]

I have made my oen dough sometimes, it's not that hard but does take a lot of pre-planning. Sometimes I just buy the pizza dough from the grocery store deli. Those seem to work pretty well in a pinch. 

I don't use sauce. I like to use just tomato paste and sliced tomatoes. I take a small can of tomato paste and just spread it thin. I find that starigh tomatoes add too much water to the pizza, so I run them through the food dehydrator first. Then I add capers and sliced mozzarella on top. That's generally it. Sometimes I will add some other other toppings, but just tomatoes, capers and cheese come out delish.