| Level: | Intermediate |
| Total: | 21 min |
| Prep: | 10 min |
| Inactive: | 1 min |
| Cook: | 10 min |
| Yield: | Twp 14-inch pizzas |
| Level: | Intermediate |
| Total: | 21 min |
| Prep: | 10 min |
| Inactive: | 1 min |
| Cook: | 10 min |
| Yield: | Twp 14-inch pizzas |
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup warm water (about 110 degrees)
- 1 envelope active dry yeast
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 4 cups bread flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/4 cups cold water
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- Yellow cornmeal, for sprinkling the baking sheet
- Sausage, Tomato, and Artichoke Heart, recipe follows
- Prosciutto and Arugula Pizza, recipe follows
- Caramelized Onion, Radicchio, and Goat Cheese Pizzettes, recipe follows
- Pizza with Stuffed Crust, method follows
- Calzone, method follows
- Calzone with Cheese, Sausage, and Roasted Red Pepper, recipe follows
- Three-cheese Spinach Calzones, recipe follows
- Focaccia, method follows
- Garlic and Rosemary Focaccia, recipe follows
- Thyme Focaccia and Parmesan Focaccia, recipe follows
- 1/2 pound hot Italian sausage, casing discarded and the sausage chopped
- 1/2 cup finely chopped onion
- 1 large garlic clove, minced
- 1/2 teaspoon crumbled dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon crumbled dried basil
- One 14-ounce can Italian tomatoes, drained, chopped fine, and drained well again in a colander
- One 6-ounce jar marinated artichoke hearts, drained, rinsed and patted dry
- 1/2 cup coarsely grated mozzarella
- 1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1 cup small to medium arugula leaves
- 4 ounces mozzarella (preferably fresh)
- 1 cup pizza sauce, or other tomato sauce
- 6 very thin slices prosciutto
- 1 pound red onions, thinly sliced (4 cups)
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 1/2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- 1/2 pound radicchio, chopped (3 1/2 cups)
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 3 ounces soft mild goat cheese, crumbled
- 2 teaspoons fresh thyme, chopped
- 1 large red bell pepper
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 1/4 pounds red onions, sliced
- 4 sweet or spicy Italian sausages, casings removed
- 3 cups (packed) coarsely grated mozzarella (about 12 ounces)
- 12 ounces ricotta
- 4 teaspoons dried oregano
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- Two 10-ounce packages frozen chopped spinach, thawed, squeezed dry
- 6 green onions, chopped
- 1 cup part-skim ricotta
- 1 cup crumbled Gorgonzola or blue cheese (about 4 ounces)
- 2 cups (packed) grated Fontina (about 8 ounces)
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 6 large garlic cloves, halved lengthwise
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1 tablespoon coarsely chopped fresh rosemary
- Coarse salt, for sprinkling
- Freshly ground black pepper, for sprinkling
- 2 teaspoons minced fresh thyme leaves
- 1/2 cup coarsely grated Parmesan
- Coarse salt for sprinkling
- Freshly ground black pepper for sprinkling
Instructions
- In a bowl, combine warm water, yeast, and sugar. Stir to combine. In the food processor, combine flour and salt and pulse. Add the yeast mixture, cold water, and oil. Pulse until a ball is formed: this will happen quickly, be careful not to overwork the dough. Scrape dough out onto a lightly floured counter and knead for several minutes until dough is smooth. Allow dough to rest for 2 to 3 minutes. Place dough in oiled bowl and allow to rise at room temperature for about 1 hour.
- Punch dough down, divide into 2 to 4 balls, let rise another 30 minutes.
- Heat up pizza stone in a 500 degree F oven. Form a 10- to 14-inch pizza crust and place on a piece of parchment paper sprinkled with yellow cornmeal. Place topping on the crust and place the pizza, with the parchment paper in the oven on the pizza stone or on hot inverted cookie sheet (not aluminum). Bake until golden, about 10 minutes.
- In a small heavy skillet cook the sausage over moderate heat, stirring, until it is cooked through, transfer with a slotted spoon to a bowl, and discard all but 1 tablespoon of the fat remaining in the skillet. In the fat cook the garlic, oregano, basil, and salt and pepper, to taste over moderately low heat, stirring, until the onion is soft and transfer the onion mixture to the bowl.
- Top uncooked pizza dough rounds with sausage mixture, tomatoes, artichoke hearts, mozzarella, Parmesan, and salt and pepper, to taste and bake the pizzas on the bottom rack of a preheated oven for 10 to 12 minutes, or until the crusts are golden brown.
- Trim any tough stems from arugula and thinly slice the cheese.
- Top pizza dough with pizza sauce, spreading with back of a spoon to within 1/2-inch of edge.
- Arrange mozzarella slices evenly over sauce.
- Bake the pizza for 6 to 7 minutes, or until dough is crisp and browned, and transfer with a metal spatula to a cutting board.
- Scatter arugula over pizza and arrange prosciutto slices on top.
- In a 12-inch heavy skillet over moderate heat, cook onions in oil, stirring frequently, until deep golden, about 15 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in vinegar, radicchio, and salt and pepper, to taste.
- Top uncooked pizza dough with onion mixture, goat cheese and thyme, leaving a 3/4-inch border.
- Roll out pizza. Pipe ricotta around the edge of the round and fold the edges over. Or, cut mozzarella into logs and place on the edges of the round and fold over the edges. Top with desired toppings and bake as above.
- Roll out dough balls to about 9-inch rounds. Place fillings over half of each round. Fold plain dough half over filling, forming half circles. Pinch edges together to seal. Transfer to baking sheet. Cut 3 slits in top to let steam escape. Bake until golden brown, about 15 minutes .
- Char bell pepper over gas flame or in broiler until blackened on all sides. Enclose in paper bag and let stand 10 minutes. Peel, seed, and slice pepper. Alternatively, use jarred roasted pepper.
- In heavy large skillet over medium-high heat, heat olive oil. Add red onions; saute until brown, about 25 minutes. Set aside. In heavy medium skillet over medium heat, saute sausage until cooked through, breaking into 1/2-inch pieces with spoon, about 15 minutes. Set aside. Mix both cheeses and oregano in bowl, season with salt and pepper to taste.
- If making 4 calzones, spread 1/3 cup cheese mixture on half of each round of uncooked calzone dough, leaving 3/4-inch border. Cover cheese on each with 1/4 of onions, 1/3 cup cheese mixture, 1/4 of sausage, 1/3 cup cheese mixture, then 1/4 of bell peppers. Fold plain dough halves over filling, forming half circles. Pinch edges of dough firmly together to seal.
- Mix spinach, onions, ricotta, Gorgonzola, and Fontina in medium bowl to blend. Season with salt and pepper.
- Oil a cookie sheet. Roll out dough and place in cookie sheet. Make indentations with your fingertips. Top with desired flavorings and toppings. Let rise in warm place about 1 hour and then bake until golden.
- Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.
- Combine garlic and oil in a very small metal bowl and set on a baking sheet. Bake in lower third of oven for 1 hour. Cool on a rack 30 minutes. Pour oil through a small sieve into another bowl and discard garlic. Roll out the focaccia, drizzle with some garlic oil and sprinkle with rosemary, coarse salt, and pepper, and bake until golden brown.
- For thyme focaccia, knead thyme into dough after 1st rest.
- For Parmesan focaccia, sprinkle dough with Parmesan before baking.
- Sprinkle both doughs with salt and pepper before baking.
Reviews
Great dough
Favorite go-to pizza dough!
By far the easiest and most delicious pizza dough recipe I’ve tried! I’ve made it at least 9 or 10 times now and it’s been a huge hit with my family and friends. I did follow the suggestion of other reviewers and add a little more salt, but that’s it! Perfect!
This is my favorite pizza dough recipe, it’s easy to make and delicious to eat!! I love it!!
Easy to prepare and work with. The spare dough balls worked well both refrigerated and frozen. Tweaked to my own taste with herbs, garlic powder and a tad more salt for a bit more flavor, but overall a good base recipe worth using!
This recipe is ok, but not exceptional. While the dough was fairly easy to work with and I appreciated these ease with my food processor, it was rather bland. I had to increase the amount of water by 1/2 cup and salt by 1 teaspoon but still the flavor fell short of my exceptations. The final result didn’t have the chewiness I was looking for either.
We’ve tried about every food-processor pizza dough recipe out there but we always come back to this one. It’s reliable, healthy (especially if you use some whole wheat flour!) and yummy!
We let it rise in the warming drawer on the “proof bread” setting and it only takes about 30 minutes to get really fluffy!
Next time I’ll add a bit more flour to produce a denser dough for the grill- it needs to be a little less stretchy than it was this time… but it’s otherwise perfect for grilled pizza as well as the oven.
This will always be a go-to for us.
We let it rise in the warming drawer on the “proof bread” setting and it only takes about 30 minutes to get really fluffy!
Next time I’ll add a bit more flour to produce a denser dough for the grill- it needs to be a little less stretchy than it was this time… but it’s otherwise perfect for grilled pizza as well as the oven.
This will always be a go-to for us.
I have made this pizza dough several times and I always have people asking me for the recipe. I don’t follow all of the directions, I have to admit, since I have a bread machine that does the work for me. I just proof the yeast and then throw the rest of the ingredients in and set it to the dough setting. It’s that easy to make!! I also spread the dough out paper thin on my pizza pans and bake the crust for 10 minutes in a 350 degree oven before topping it and cooking for 10-15 more minutes. This gives the dough an extra crunchy (but not burnt) bite. I add Italian seasonings like basil to the dough as well. Mmmmmm, mmmmmm, mmmmmmmmmm! Every time I even think about making this recipe, my mouth waters.
I have made this pizza crust about 8-10 times now and it always works out. It is a fool-proof recipe that makes two large pizzas. Follow the directions about leaving your pizza stone in the 500F oven and adding the pizza to the stone. The crust is crispy and delicious. Add olive oil and garlic or other flavorings to the crust and it is even better. We have made so many variations of this recipe from simple cheese, pepperoni, buffalo chicken, spinach and artichoke, meatball, fajita, you name it. Use this pizza crust to clean out your fridge and have a field day with your leftovers. I can’t say enough about this great crust. We don’t even order take out anymore!!
This recipe is simple but very good. I have used it for everything from pizza to calzone to breadsticks and even flatbread to accompany pasta dishes. It freezes well for quick summer lunch for the kids. I first saw this recipe several years ago on Sara’s show and recall it very often.