Becca Kitchen Fail, Pizza Pie & Guy Fieri, Oh My!

A beautiful slice of our homemade pizza. Makes my mouth water right now.

Well folks, I hate admitting when I mess up in the kitchen. I would really like everyone to think that I make everything perfectly...but that would be untrue! In fact, the reason I like cooking so much and keep trying new things is that's how I learned how to cook originally and keep learning.

Back to the story at hand. I have a nickname for my husband Cory "the doughboy," because he makes such delicious doughs! He can whip up pizza dough, pasta dough, parker house roll dough, like he's been doing it all of his life. This means that I get to sit back and enjoy the yumminess but it also means I have very low dough confidence myself.

While Cory was out of town last week, I decided I would whip up his Neopolitan pizza dough, no problem. I thought I did everything correctly for the dough but when I baked my pizza, it just wasn't quite right but I was almost certain it wasn't due to the dough but instead, the baking process. I decided since it was a weeknight and late (8:30 is late for dinner for me!), that I would cut corners and not use our trusty pizza stone and instead, use our regular baking sheet. It turns out, the preheated pizza stone is a MUST! I repeat, learn from my kitchen fail, it is a MUST! The next night, we used the remaining dough and voila! the perfect pizzas emerged from the oven, as a result of using the pizza stone.

This is my not-so-perfectly baked pizza from last week & yes, I still ate it! 

Lesson learned and pizza was still enjoyed on both nights! Below are our tips on how to make an excellent homemade pizza and our favorite recipe (click here to go straight to the recipe).

Helpful hints - some of our best hints came from Guy Fieri & our local celeb friends Meridy and Eric:

1. Flour: Use double "00" flour for your pizza (Guy Fieri gave us this tip when he visited us in Bentonville and he was spot on...to prove we met him, photo is here). We ordered this flour from Amazon, as our local grocers did not have it available: Antimo Caputo Chefs Flour

   

   At 21C, The Hive, with Guy Fieri

2. Oven: Preheat your oven to the highest temperature possible, for us, that is 550 degrees. This will ensure your crust has a crispness to its edges, while being soft inside. 
3. Pizza Stone: Place your pizza stone in the oven while it preheats and let it warm for 1 hour. This will also ensure your crust is baked perfectly. 
4. Cheese: we continue to debate between the deli-fresh mozzarella balls and the dairy department harder mozzarella cheese. At the end of the day, we recommend the dairy department cheese for ultimate meltability. However, if you want to make a traditional margherita-style pizza, we recommend using the small mozzarella pearls from the deli department. 
5. Variety: this recipe will make 3 medium-size pizzas. We always plan for a variety of bases/sauces to go on our pizza: a white pizza with olive oil only, a green pizza with pesto and a red pizza with our home blended red sauce. 
6. Red sauce: an easy and much more delicious way to prepare a red sauce is to get a can of tomato paste, add your own mix of spices and water until it reaches your ideal sauce consistency. 
7. Time: give yourself plenty of time to prep the dough and give it time to become ready to be made into your delicious pizza. This recipe calls for 8 hours of refrigerator time, plus time to sit out and become room temperature, as you are ready to make the pizza, approximately 1 hour. 
8. Prebake: my husband and I like to put our formed pizza crust in the oven to bake about 5 minutes. Once it is partially baked, pull the dough out of the oven and top with your sauce and toppings before putting it back in for its final bake. 
9. Pizza Peel: This item is essential for successfully putting the pizza in/out of the oven. We love this one from William's Sonoma (WS pizza peel).

Pizza Dough Recipe

1 3/4 pound Double "00" flour

Additional flour for dusting (1 - 2 cups)

1/2 teaspoon active dry yeast 

2 c warm water total, separate 1/4 cup for use

1 T salt

In a small bowl, whisk yeast and 1/4 c water, let stand til foamy. 

In a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, pour in the yeast mixture and add in the 1 3/4 pounds of flour and mix at low speed for 1 minute. Increase speed to medium and mix until all flour is incorporated. It is at this point where I typically have to add 1/4-1/2 cup of additional flour to the mixture to make it come together in the form of a ball, around the dough hook. Add salt and mix until the dough is soft and a smooth ball has formed.

Place your dough in a mixing bowl that has been sprayed with cooking spray. Pour, then brush on a little bit of olive oil on top of your dough, then cover with plastic wrap and let it rise for 2 hours in a warm place. TIP: you can put your bowl in the oven with a freshly boiled kettle of water. Shut the door and this will create a warm environment for your dough to rise. Just make sure you don't turn on the oven while doing this, as I have done once before!

Once the dough has risen, put the covered bowl in the refrigerator to continue the development process for 8 hours or overnight.

When you are ready to use your dough, take the bowl out of the refrigerator to let it sit about 20 minutes. Next, create a well-floured area on your counter to prepare for shaping your crust. You will also want to flour your hands, as the dough can be sticky.

Once your floured surface is ready, separate the dough into 3 balls. Gradually press one ball into the floured surface to gently start forming your crust. Cory and I massage the crust until it forms the shape and size we want it to.

Lightly cover the surface of the pizza stone and your pizza peel with flour, this will prevent the dough from sticking as it is placed on the stone and as you are removing it from the stone. Bake your crust about 3 - 5 minutes (it will start to look baked but not browned) and then remove it and add your sauce/toppings (watching out for the hot crust).

Now, your pizza is ready for it's final bake! Let your pizza bake from 5 - 10 minutes, until the crust is golden and your cheese is bubbling with yumminess.

Enjoy!

Our favorite pizza combinations:

• Pesto, red onion, mushrooms, feta & mozzarella
• Tomato sauce, pepperoni & pineapple (my personal favorite!)
• White pizza with olive oil, pepperoni, freshly sliced tomatoes and mozzarella (Cory's favorite!)
• Tomato sauce with a meatlovers delight (Italian sausage, pepperoni and prosciutto) with mozzarella

I want to hear from you: have you ever had a kitchen snafu? What are your favorite combinations of pizza toppings?