Last post I mentioned that I’ve been making a lot of pizzas & dough lately. Well, here’s a dough post.

And to make up for a photo-lacking post yesterday I thought I’d get get snappy too.

My jeans after an afternoon playing with flour

I’ve been using an Alton Brown recipe after testing a few around the place. I’ve found however that you don’t have to be as strict as he advises to get good results. It’s not necessary to wait overnight for proofing. You don’t have to double-proof either. Sure it depends on your preference in the end, whether you like thin or thick bases, & sometimes I do spend the time to double-proof the batch for a thin & crispy style but really you only have to prove for an hour, beat it down again & go for it to get a “classic crust”.

Alton’s recipe-

• 1 (quarter-oz) packet of yeast (2 & a 1/4 teaspoon) of instant yeast
• 1 1/2 cups warm water
• 3T sugar
• 1T salt
• 2T olive oil
• 4C flour

Ok, here’s where my method takes over though..

Mix the liquids with the yeast in a.. uh, vessel of some sort. Does it really matter?

Mix the flour, sugar & salt in a big bowl. Make a well in the middle, pour your liquid in & then mix it all together. Now if you’re lucky enough to have one of those sexy Kitchenaids, this is where you get to break out your toy & use the kneading paddle. Now, I don’t have shit so this is where I scrub under my nails & get my hands into the dough.

Keep kneading & kneading the dough.

One thing Alton said really stuck with me. He taught me “the window pane” trick. How do you know when the dough is ready? This is how you tell..

Get a small ball of dough, kinda like the size of that big marble in your collection when you were a kid. You remember the big kong ones that would start the game? konkers, or tonks.. I guess it depends what school you went to..

Anyhow, get your little ball of dough, flatten it in your hands & stretch it from all sides until it’s super thin. Now, hold it up to the light. Can you pull it so tight that you can see the light through the thin membrane without it it tearing?

Geez, I really should’ve taken photos showing that instead of explaining it forever.

Ok, so if you got the “window pane” then your dough is good. It won’t tear when you try to stretch out your base.

Ready for some creepy pictures?

I freaked out my husband with this one earlier. Seriously, if you didn’t know this was dough it looks really gross & creepy.

Feel the sexy caress of the dough.. yeh baby..

Alrighty, so your dough is good but now it’s time to wait a bit. Rub it in a little oil so it doesn’t dry out or stick to your bowl. Cover it with plastic or cloth & leave it for about an hour. Go drink a coffee or 4 .. or play some marbles or something..

When you get back your dough should’ve doubled in size. Punch it down & beat the crap out of it. This is my favourite part. Get all those bubbles out (It might need a bit more flour on the outside now since it rose)

Now you’re ready to make pizzas!

I won’t instruct you here. This is where you should just have fun. Make whatever shape & size you want. I am a fan of big ones so you can do the huge NY slice style.

So there’s your dough, meatbags!

We didn’t have any cheese for ours today, but I’m not against the whole cheeseless pizza idea. It certainly makes one of my favourite “junkfoods” healthier. Lots of sauce, garlic & herbs, that’s what a good pizza needs… oh, & mushrooms, caramelized onion, blue cheese, pineapple, avocado & olives.

So, you should see my freezer right now. I made double qty of that recipe & now have 5 sauced pizza bases ready for action in my freezer. Hell yeh!