What says Buffalo more than pizza, ok maybe Pizza and wings, but this week the focus is just going to cover the pizza part.
My first memory of homemade pizza dough was a winter break I spent in Speculator NY during my senior year in college. I was visiting with a friend and she taught me how to crochet and make homemade pizza dough all in the same evening! What else would one do with 5 feet of snow on the ground on a dark winter evening in the Adirondack’s waiting for pizza dough to rise? It was the best pizza I had up until that point in my life.
I took my love for homemade pizza with me to Silver Spring MD where I would host gatherings on Thursday evenings for watching Friends and Seinfeld with the added benefit of making your own pizza/calzone. Our first slumber party with the Buffalo nieces and nephews after our move in 2009 included make your own pizza dinners some 15 years later.
I’ve since added the bread machine in to the repertoire and we half the flour 50% white/50% wheat, though I do think we are ready to take the wheat up to 75%, it just doesn’t seem hearty enough to me anymore. I'm not really sure why we use the bread machine other than because we have it and I can dump and walk away...It doesn't taste like the dough I remember from that first evening in the Adirondack's.
Why do I love homemade pizza? Because you put whatever YOU want on it! Dann is a traditional pizza kind of guy – sauce, meat, cheese. Me, not so much. I don’t care for the sauce part and prefer some Olive Oil, veggies and cheese, or fruit, cinnamon sugar and butter…just depends on my mood. Most recently I’ve started topping my pizza with my new favorite pasta topping because Dann does not care for the pasta dish and I adore it. Here’s my topping of choice as of late:
1 small head cauliflower, cut into pieces
1 small leek or onion, cut into pieces
¼ cup Greek Olives, sliced
1 clove garlic, minced
Toss in olive oil and roast at 400 for about 20 minutes (it will cook more on top of the pizza). Could top about 4 pizza’s
The pizza recipe we've been using comes from the cookbook that came with our breadman pro, we get 4 personal pizza's out of this recipe:
1 2/3 cups warm water
2 Tbl Oil
2 Tbl Sugar
2 tsp Sugar (or honey)
2 Tbl dry milk
4 1/2 Cups Flour (try blending different flours like we have to get a dough that works for you and your family and friends)
2 tsp Active Dry Yeast
Set on Pizza Dough Course on your machine and walk away for about 50 minutes.
Coat a round of uncooked pizza dough with Olive Oil, top with cauliflower mixture, slivers of Parmesan Reggiano cheese and bake at 425 for 18 minutes.
So why not make some pizza tonight? Find toppings your family loves, let the kids make their own, and enjoy some time together!
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