RFCJ RECIPE ARCHIVE
Posted by : Douglas W. Jones KC: Pizza, Thick Crust - pareve
>From article <35C20A55.202@mb.sympatico.ca>, by Dennis Antony <macnut@mb.sympatico.ca>: > This is a recipe I developed when we began to keep kosher. Since we > couldn't go out for pepperoni pizza I made it myself. Alternately, if you like thick-crust pizza, try: Crust: In a 2-cup measuring cup, put 1 1/3 cup very warm water and 1 packet quick rising dry yeast and a pinch of sugar. Stir, then add 3 tbsp oil to the water and set aside. Meanwhile, measure out 4 cups flour and 1 tsp salt into a large mixing bowl and mix the sugar into the flour. Take your time, because you want to let the yeast-water-oil mixture start to foam, and this takes about 5 to 10 minutes. When the yeast starts foaming, pour the liquids slowly into the solids while stirring with a fork. Keep stirring until the mess begins turns into clods, and then go at it with your hands, kneading it until it stops sticking to your fingers or the bowl. Work the ball of dough until it's smooth, uniform and a bit leathery on the outside, then set the dough aside and rinse and scrub the bowl, then dry it (you'll put the dough back in, the cleaning job is just to keep the dough from sticking to the bowl). Add a splash of oil to the bowl, just enough to oil the surface of the bowl and of the dough ball, the put the dough in, turn it a few times to oil it up, and cover the bowl. I've used a damp towel (very traditional) and I've also used a pot lid. Set the dough aside in a warm place for 2 to 3 hours, until it rises enough to lift the cover on the pot. In the summer, my kitchen is warm enough for this. In the winter, I use a warm (not hot) oven, or sometimes, I put it in the microwave and zap it to get the temperature of the dough ball up to around body temperature. When the dough has risen, get out your pizza baking sheet. A cookie sheet works, but I like the perforated aluminum pizza sheet I found at a cookware sale, and you can spend even more, if you want, on one of those ceramic "pizza stones". Lightly oil the baking surface. I use a spray-on oil. Then, carefully tip the bowl holding the dough and let gravity pull the ball of dough out onto your hand. It'll begin to ooze off your hand as you set the empty bowl down! Once your other hand is free, flop the dough back and forth between your hands so it turns from a ball to a disc, and as you do this, try to keep the disc rotating perhaps 1/4 of a turn with each flop. As the disc gets bigger than your hands, gravity as well as flopping action will start making it bigger! If you're careless, the center will get too thin, but with practice, you can make a circle of dough that's moderately uniform in thickness and about 14 inches across. Put this dough on your pizza baking sheet, and gently press it, with your palms, into a uniform disc with a raised edge. Irregularities don't hurt the taste, and if you tear the dough on your first try, you can always cut and patch the crust without hurting the taste! Add pizza sauce, cheese or meat and cook at 400 degrees F for 20 minutes or until the cheese (if present) looks golden; add 5 minutes if you didn't preheat the oven). Kashrut, of course, requires that you not put both cheese and meat on the same pizza, and depending on which topping you choose, you'd better use the right oven and pizza pan! Basic pizza sauce: 1 small can tomato paste, 1/3 to 1/2 can water, 1 tsp oregano, 1 tsp basil, 1 tsp sugar, 1/2 tsp garlic powder. Mix them in a pot, then spread over the crust and top with any or all of the following before you add your cheese or meat: 1/2 cup chopped onions, 1/2 cup chopped green pepper, 1/2 cup chopped mushrooms, 1/4 cup chopped black olives, 1 tbsp capers. After cooking, slice 8 ways. Serving size: 2 slices for a hungry adult. Doug Jones jones@cs.uiowa.edu
