{Baking Challenge} Homemade Pizza Dough

Jhuls @ The Not So Creative Cook

10 years ago

One of my 2015 resolutions includes dealing with yeast again. If you follow my adventures since early 2014, maybe you could remember that I have couple encounters with the yeast beast. All of them were not perfectly successful that I had to say goodbye to the yeast for a while.
I was invited by my colleague to a pizza lunch. I saw her make her pizza using a pizza maker. She told me the recipe except for the yeast. I kept asking her about the ‘smelly thing’ and she said she didn’t use the it. It didn’t come to me that she only meant active dry yeast, so even how many times I asked her, she said ‘No’ multiple times. Her kids were playing and called my name when she was showing me how she made her dough, so my eyes left the dough-making class for a short period. The next thing I know, she already prepared the bowl and the dough to rise. I was really amazed on how the dough has risen despite of the not usage of the ‘smelly thing’.

I emailed Linda to ask for help and she gladly assisted me in the pizza problems I had. After we had exchange of emails, I tried making a dough myself without the yeast. Luckily, it worked. The texture was quite different – very light and airy. Regardless, the pizza was delicious that I ate half in one sitting. 😀 I immediately sent photos to Linda and she was happy for me. Again, she convinced me to try making the dough with yeast and she promised me that no smell will occur again.

The following week, my friend made the dough again and I saw her put instant yeast. She said I did not specify the instant yeast, so when she told me about the ‘smelly thing’, she thought that I was ONLY asking about the active dried yeast. Again, I emailed Linda. (See how many times I bothered her with my problem? 😐 )

This pizza craving did not let me sleep for how many nights. I have two choices – (1) try and accept the fact that it might not be successful or (2) I’ll just go on my life and let the yeast beast scare me again. With Linda’s encouragement + the craving I had for homemade pizza, it made me face the yeast again.

In this, I made an estimate using my colleague’s recipe.

HOMEMADE PIZZA DOUGH Recipe

Servings: 2 12-inch round or 3 10-inch round
Difficulty: easy, needs practice
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Ingredients:

2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 ½ tsp instant yeast
1 ½ tsp baking powder
3 tbsp sugar
½ tsp salt
¾ cup warm water
1/3 cup yogurt
2 tbsp olive oil (or any flavorless oil)

(You’ll also need additional flour for your work surface and oil for your bowl.)

Instructions:

Put all ingredients for the dough in a large bowl.
Using a wooden spoon or your clean hands, mix the dough until you get all the flour from the bowl.
Knead the dough until it becomes soft and elastic.
Shape the dough into a ball and put in an oiled bowl, cover using a plastic wrap or lint-free towel. Keep it in a warm place and let it rise for an hour or until doubled in size.
Punch the dough and transfer to a lightly floured surface. Knead for a few seconds.
Meanwhile, preheat your oven at 400 F.
Divide the dough into 3 equal parts if you prefer a thin-crust pizza or 2 parts if you prefer a thick crust.
Flatten the dough to 12 inches (or whatever you prefer) to fit your baking sheet.
Put whatever toppings you prefer.
Bake at 15 minutes or until the mozzarella melts beautifully.
Serve and enjoy immediately.

For mess-free eating, I chopped my veggies (green bell peppers, tomatoes, white onions and black olives). I made half Hawaiian and half veggies just the way I love it. For the sauce, I used tomato ketchup. Yep! That’s right – the easiest and a good sub to store-bought pizza sauce or homemade. 😉

The pizza dough has risen to about 1-inch thick (the baking powder’s fault?). Apart from that, I don’t have any comments at all except that… wohoooo!!! I made a pizza dough!!!

I wanted to kiss the pizza as soon as it came out from the oven – it was so soft and so delicious. I better try making it thinner next time and try different toppings. Shawarma, maybe? Now, give me a really good Shawarma pizza topping recipe. Anyone? 😀

So, what do you think of my first pizza? 😀 I hope you like this and happy partying!!