Perfecting Pizza At Home

If you are somewhat adventurous in the kitchen 

I highly recommend making homemade pizza.

It's really fun and actually really easy 

and perfect for dinner in the summer time

I tried 3 or 4 different recipes and finally figured out how 

to make great dough that's perfect every time

I like a thinner dough 

with a nice chewy well browned crust

This recipe is an adaptation of "Now or Later Pizza"

 from the King Arthur website

but here is what I discovered along the holy grail of pizza making....

It's all about the flour! 

The secret is to use a "00" flour (dopio zero)

which is more finely ground that the typical bread flour we find here in the US

I found this beautiful flour imported from Italy on Amazon

It is a bit more pricey than regular flour but I think well worth the money.  

You won't be using it every day (unless you are a pizza fanatic)

so it goes a long way if you just use if for pizza 

Here is an interesting blog post about this flour if you are curious

The second ingredient is adding Semolina flour

I purchased this brand form the same Italian supplier but semolina is widely available and 

Bob's Red Mill is also excellent

This third ingredient is defiantly optional but does add something to the flavor 

which I can't really explain.  

It's sort of like a sour dough/cheese/garlic flavoring 

You can get this from King Arthur Flour 

and it costs about 9 dollars

It lasts quite a long time too

OK soooooo

You will also need 

Yeast

Salt

Olive oil

&

water

pretty simple list

I make my dough by hand with the help of a 

batter spoon thingy (sometimes called a Swedish Wisk)

in a large mixing bowl

I will give you the entire recipe at the end of the post 

but quickly take you through the process

The 00 flour is on the left and the semolina on the right

They are both super fine flours and mix together beautifully

Combine the flours and the pizza flavoring

add in the yeast

some olive oil and the salt and combine well

the dough will start to pull together really quickly 

when it looks lumpy but well hydrated you are ready to knead

I like using the semolina for my bench flour but what ever is nearby is fine

When you dump out your dough you can quickly combine

and start to shape 

to begin kneading

Dust your hands too 

Knead for about 5 minutes until the dough is soft and well formed

I try not to over knead this dough 

and leave it a bit rough looking

Put your kneaded dough into a plastic container like this Cambro

Tightly seal and let rise for 1 hour

It won't really double in size at this point...but just wait!

Refrigerate the dough for at least 4 hours or up to 36 hours

I have been making the dough once per week 

and usually use it about 3 days after I have made it

This is what it will look like after a few days

Awesome!

At this point I divide the dough either in half or in quarters

Use now or use later

It also freezes great 

Watch this to get inspired....I dare ya

Here's the recipe:

1 3/4 cups Italian "00" flour

1 1/4 cups Semolina flour

1 Tbl Pizza dough flavoring

1 tsp yeast

1 1/2 tsp salt

2 tbl olive oil

1 1/2 cups water

next post....fire up the pizza oven

xo

kelley

Chalkboard Art Project: details

So lets get started...

Here is how I thought I should approach this:

I started with a simple design 

using a graphics software program 

for Mac called 

The Print Shop 

My cafe styled artwork is called

The Daily Bread

and it lists all of the things we can serve you 

at our little French Cafe!

The finish graphic was printed  out on standard

 8 1/2 x 11 inch paper

 and I left the spacing grids in 

to help with placement

 I started by dividing the board up into quadrants 

 I used simple rulers and a tape measure for this

The font I chose is called Infilto, 

which is one of my favorites !

You can find lots of great fonts just like this one

that can be downloaded for free or there are millions of sites 

 you can purchase great fonts 

for just a few dollars.

 Here we are 

beginning  to add the largest elements 

and some of the type

I really just loosely sketched  

the words and art into the areas that were consistent  

with my computer created graphics

 the banner at the bottom says 

"open daily"

 One of the biggest issues I had was dull chalk ...it wouldn't fit into my pencil sharpener 

so I used a paring knife, 

but it was not the best solution either

Looking at the board at this point

I realized that: 

1.  my bread looked like a Thanksgiving turkey 

and 

2. there was no way I could fit all of those food items 

on to this chalkboard ....

way to much wording

 So I narrowed it down to just three words,

moved the wheat sheaths to the sides of a new bread sketch 

and kept right on going....

 reworking as needed

 Adding a crosshatch border 

was a nice element too

 It took a few times

to get the style of the font 

translated using chalk 

 I have to say, one of the best things about this type of project 

is the ease in which you can wipe off your mistakes

 and try again...awesome!

so here we are...

not finished yet, 

but getting close.... even though my bread now looks like a baked potato

but the basic design is in place

and I learned a lot about the actual process of chalkboard artwork

I will share the finished board on my next post...

Did I mention how much fun this is!!!!?