Recipe Thin pizza crust and pizza sauce

This is for a thin crust so no rise time and it's easier to get cooked through. I have a commercial mixer (amazing what you can find in someone's barn!) so I usually make this batch X 10 and let the mixer do the kneading for me. Once it comes off the hook I divide it into however many portions, lightly brush them with olive oil, wrap tightly in saran wrap, then again in foil, and freeze for later. Sometimes frozen dough rises poorly but this isn't really mean to rise anyway.

Pizza crust
2 1/4 t yeast
1/4 t sugar
3/4 c hot water (I just use hot tap)
1 3/4 c flour
1/2 t salt

Put hot water in medium mixing bowl, then add yeast and sugar. I give it a gentle stir or two just to make sure the yeast is all wet. Let it sit for 8-10 minutes.

Go mix your flour and salt and then pour over the yeast mix, mix well. Towards the end you'll probably need to use your hand to get it all incorporated, then put on lightly floured surface and knead for about 2 minutes.

If you have a pizza stone, put the dough on it and roll it out. I don't so I just do this on the countertop. Roll out fairly thin to cover a large pizza pan. At this point I take olive oil and lightly coat the top side, then flip it over so the oiled side is on the bottom of a perforated pizza pan. That's how you do focicca and I like the way it makes the bottom go golden and crispy. You can skip that and just toss it on the pan if you'd prefer.

Cover with pizza sauce and whatever else you wanna throw on there.

I'm still getting the temperature and time figured out. The amount of toppings makes the time too variable (the Mr puts so much on that his side is nearly 4" thick) Anywhere from 350 for half an hour to 500 for ten minutes seems to work. I did this a couple of times out on the wood grill just to see if I could, and it turned out good although it smelled like mesquite.

Pizza sauce
Take about 16 oz of tomato sauce and put it in a saucepan over medium low heat. You want to cook it down a bit so it's a little thicker. If you have tomato paste you can use 1 part paste to 2 parts sauce and skip the reduction, but I don't usually can paste. Add in a teaspoon or two of oregano, basil, marjoram, garlic, onion (dried or fresh minced depending on what you have), little salt and pepper, about a teaspoon of sugar and a few tablespoons of olive oil. Voila!

 

Thanks for the recipes. I copied them and will keep them on file for those guests who I really like who might complain about the pan pizzas I normally make from scratch. If I don't like them all that much they usually get tossed a loaf of store bought bread and handed a jar of cheap peanut butter. Most guests eat what I fix with gusto and smile alot with no complaints. .... I am getting a little better about taking requests to fix certain meals instead of just suiting myself

 

I shall remember that if and when we ever meet, tac. I'll bring my own vegemite.

 

this looks good, gonna try it Thanks
my input for pizza is to get a stone and preheat the oven and stone to 500 degrees then use a peel or tray with a little peameal to slide the pizza onto the hot stone.( and put a little peameal on the stone to slide it off after)..yummy and fast, you have to keep an eye on it as it can get away on you quickly and I almost always have to turn mine halfway through, but it seems to cook nicer all the way through with the high heat

oh, and never put a frozen pizza on a hot stone.....that's apparently bad for the stone...

 

Suit yourself. My skills as a chef are in demand. Although not formally trained, my brother was a graduate of a well known culinary arts institute, and I could and did often impress him.

 

Friend of mine once got so pissed about her dad's never ending complaining about her cooking that she dumped a can of some beef stew style dog food in a pot, added salt and pepper, and fed him that one night. Go figure, he thought it was better than her usual cooking.

Oddly enough that was the same friend who used to eat all my Whoppers until I got some chunk dog food, dipped it in chocolate, and put it a whopper box in the fridge. She never admitted to eating them, but she never took my Whoppers again either.

 

Your version of a whopper and a whopper box has me confused. I think of Burger King when you say Whopper. But then you talk dipping chunk dog food in chocolate and putting it in a "Whopper box". If I were raiding your frig, no way would I mistake this for something from Burger King. Why am I confused? There must be more to this Whopper/Whopper Box that is a regional / local thing that I do not get. Please enlighten me. BTW, whatever the case may be, I figure he got off easy as you could have spiked the chocolate coating with Exlax. That he never would have forgot for sure.

 

They're malted milk balls covered in chocolate. I kept them in the fridge because the house didn't have central a/c at the time and they would get melty. My friend would invite herself over and then eat an entire box of these things if she could find them. As I was in college at the time, and perpetually broke, whoppers were like my guilty sin and I didn't spend my tiny bit of extra scratch on them so she could inhale the entire carton.

She always insisted she wasn't the one who ate them all. When I made up the dog food ones, I made enough to fill half a carton. They didn't really look quite right, weren't perfectly round, but I didn't figure she'd notice. The next time she came over, I checked and it was down to a quarter full.

 

Okay, I got it now. I have one suggestion. Next time she is over, go get your whoppers and a bowl. Bring the bowl in and put it down in front of her. Watch her facial expression and eyes closely. Offer her some whoppers and tell her you are so glad she wasn't the person taking your whoppers and then tell her what you previously did. My guess is she will show shock or anger and may even blow lunch .... all positive affirmation she was the liar and thief. If she laughs or shows little or no emotion, you can probably assume she was not the thief. Note also as she responds, if she will not look at you and looks down and left, supposedly that is also a tell for lying.

 

I had a girlfriend in college who had the same problem, her roommate would eat ANYTHING she could get her hands on, until one night when some cupcakes gave her a tummy ache. On a related note, Exlax mixes well with chocolate icing.

 

Well Tac, I would but that was back in 1992 and I haven't seen her since.... well, since not too long after the whopper incident. I've since learned not to cavort with liars and thieves.

Only reason I remembered her at all was you saying about people who turned a nose up at your cookin and suddenly the dog food dinner came to the surface.