No matter how old I get, I'm fairly certain that pizza will always be one of my absolute favorite foods. In my perfect world I would eat pizza every day, I love it that much. In the real world, I recognize that's not the best choice, so I've resigned myself to pizza once a week.
I don't remember how it started exactly, but at some point over the course of the last year, Bax and I started making Fridays pizza and wine night. As the work days began to get harder and longer, I began to find that I was too tired to socialize on Friday nights, preferring instead to spend the time recuperating from the week that just was. It evolved from picking up pizza at my favorite DC joint (which was also around the corner from my abode...it's one of a few things I miss about DC) to dishing up homemade takes on my favorite dish. There are really no rules, which is one of the things I find most enjoyable after an extremely taxing work week. Each week's pizza is based solely on what I'm most feeling in the mood for as I make my way across the finish line to the weekend.
Pizza Fridays have been kicked up a notch lately thanks to two wonderful changes. First, moving to Bmore and living super close to market. Second, working from home on Fridays. These two factors combine to allow me to spend the morning thinking about what I want for dinner (I spend a lot of time thinking about food, so this in and of itself is exciting for me) and then I can actually go to the store during lunch and make my dreams a reality. Just being able to drive to the store is still something that, after 4 years of having to schlep my groceries around in a little cart, makes me so incredibly happy I can barely stand it.
On this particular Friday I found myself recalling an instagram post from one of my favorite bloggers (and fellow Baltimorian)--Sally, a la Sally's Baking Addiction. I'm kind of obsessed with her recipes in general. They're so easy and accessible no matter what your cooking-skill level and I've yet to have something that I didn't love. She also shares my love of sprinkles. which is an added bonus. A while back she posted the fluffiest looking homemade pizza dough that I'd ever seen and I vowed to one day make it mine.
Finally, after weeks of waiting (mostly because I kept forgetting about it) it was go time. In making this crust I was forced to exercise great patience...there's a lot of "let the dough rest" that goes into crafting the finished product, and I'm not known for my ability to relax. But I promise it's worth it. Also, fun fact, the recipe makes enough for two 12 inch pizzas, so you can freeze one for another pizza day (whereby you can skip most of the resting and just defrost the night before and go). So, when you're ready to make the best homemade pizza of your life, start with this dough and get ready for some happy taste buds!
Ingredients
Pizza Fridays have been kicked up a notch lately thanks to two wonderful changes. First, moving to Bmore and living super close to market. Second, working from home on Fridays. These two factors combine to allow me to spend the morning thinking about what I want for dinner (I spend a lot of time thinking about food, so this in and of itself is exciting for me) and then I can actually go to the store during lunch and make my dreams a reality. Just being able to drive to the store is still something that, after 4 years of having to schlep my groceries around in a little cart, makes me so incredibly happy I can barely stand it.
On this particular Friday I found myself recalling an instagram post from one of my favorite bloggers (and fellow Baltimorian)--Sally, a la Sally's Baking Addiction. I'm kind of obsessed with her recipes in general. They're so easy and accessible no matter what your cooking-skill level and I've yet to have something that I didn't love. She also shares my love of sprinkles. which is an added bonus. A while back she posted the fluffiest looking homemade pizza dough that I'd ever seen and I vowed to one day make it mine.
Finally, after weeks of waiting (mostly because I kept forgetting about it) it was go time. In making this crust I was forced to exercise great patience...there's a lot of "let the dough rest" that goes into crafting the finished product, and I'm not known for my ability to relax. But I promise it's worth it. Also, fun fact, the recipe makes enough for two 12 inch pizzas, so you can freeze one for another pizza day (whereby you can skip most of the resting and just defrost the night before and go). So, when you're ready to make the best homemade pizza of your life, start with this dough and get ready for some happy taste buds!
Pizza Heaven
Ingredients
- Pizza crust (recipe here)
- Sauce
- Toppings of choice
- Cheese for topping (I'm a sucker for a good blended number)
Preparation
[which I'm retelling through pictures today as a fun twist]
Break out the mixer and dough hook for use in prepping the yeast
[Mr. Red rarely gets to use his dough hook, so he was in all his glory]
After yeast is ready, add flour and remaining ingredients and let the dough hook work its magic
Finished product
The instructions were to lightly coat the bowl with olive oil, but by the time I settled on a picture the oil had run to the bottom. It didn't obstruct the process so, that's all that matters.
After the magic rising process takes place, he'll look like this. I squealed a little when I opened the oven and saw how big he'd gotten!
This was my absolute favorite part. I got to punch the now-massive dough to let the air out. I was pretty much having a blast by this point.
While dough is resting yet again, and oven is preheating, prep pizza toppings. This week, I used up the remainder of my baby leeks, chopped up some spinach, and as the grand finale, took advantage of my return to white meat (that's a story for another day) and topped things off with some turkey pepperonis.
Once dough is ready, top with sauce, toppings, and cheese before baking.
Bake and ta da! It's alive! Pizza time is here again!
Can it be Friday again already?!
we love making pizzas! We'll have to compare notes...also we have yet to make our own dough, so perhaps I will try this one out.
ReplyDeleteWe definitely need to compare notes...and maybe have a joint pizza night/party!
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