Brick-oven-like Pizza, at home.



The heavens have opened my friends.  Fabulous home made brick-oven-like pizza is rather easy.  Yes I said it.  Easy!  Albeit I will admit that my path to painless pizza making has not been purely smooth sailing.  A low point being five bowls of various yeast proofing experiments, which speaks volumes doesn't it?  However that is where my well earned tips and tricks will invariably help you to meet with much success.  Before you know it you'll be steering clear of the frozen pizza aisle & deleting the delivery pizza chains from your cell phone contacts list.  That's right.  This is life altering folks. 

Though my recipe is a culmination of couple of great recipes, much thanks goes to the Smitten Kitchen for her expert pizza perfecting advice.  One of the most important lessons gleaned:  "You don’t need a professional pizza oven, but high heat is your friend.  One of the most salient differences between the brick-oven beast at your favorite pizza shop and, say, the smitten kitchen’s diminutive, apartment-standard white-painted oven is that the former gets much hotter than the latter–by even 500 degrees. Your best bet to get the brick-oven effect at home is to turn your oven all the way up to broil for a good ten minutes before you pop your pizza in, and step back from the inferno as you open its mighty jaws, lest you want a high-heat facial!"  Are you as excited as I am?  Good.  Read on.

 

Brick-oven-like Pizza Dough

• 1/2 cup warm water
• 1 teaspoon active dry yeast
• 1 teaspoon honey
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

Yield: 1 small pizza or 2 personal sized pizzas.

Combine water, honey, and yeast in a small bowl and let stand until activated. 

Mix flour and salt together in the bowl of a stand mixer; add yeast mixture and oil.  Mix on low speed using the paddle attachment (this worked better than the dough hook) mix until blended, smooth, and dough springs back when pressed, 4-6 min.  Transfer to an oiled bowl (I use olive oil), cover with a towel, and put in a warm place.  Allow dough to rise until doubled, about 1 hour. 

Preheat your oven to its highest temperature.  High heat is your friend!  This will imitate the roaring inferno of a brick oven and cook the pizza extremely fast and evenly.  Sprinkle a baking pan with cornmeal or if you prefer a pizza stone, do the same & then put it in the oven to warm.  Once the dough has doubled, turn it out onto the counter and gently deflate the dough with the palm of your hands.  Form it into a ball and let it rest either wrapped in plastic wrap or under an upended bowl. In 15 minutes, it is ready to roll out.  Do so on the counter until pretty darn thin (oddly I find it much easier to roll this dough out without any flour, perhaps its the olive oil coating or the texture of my counter, but you may prefer it floured).  Then lift it onto a cornmeal-sprinkled baking sheet or pizza paddle. Add the sauce, and toppings of choice; I used amazing from-scratch marinara (recipe coming soon), shredded mozzarella, pepperoni, and fresh torn basil leaves.  Put the baking sheet in the oven or slide the pizza from the paddle to your preheated pizza stone. 

Baking Time really depends upon your oven and how hot it gets so watch it closely the first time!  My oven cooks the single pizza in about 7 minutes, and two smaller pizzas in about 5 minutes.  Your crust should be pretty golden and the cheese just starting to blister when its ready.  Enjoy.  I know you will.  

Tips:

• You may need to add an extra tablespoon or two of water if your dough seems too dry & isn't pulling away from the sides of the bowl. 
• Well risen dough will be essential, and you'll need a toasty 75-80 degree kitchen to get that dough good and doubled in 1 hour.   However, if that kind of heat is hard to come by, or if you’re in a hurry, you can speed up the dough rising time by heating your oven to 175 degrees, then turn it off. Place your dough in the warmed oven to rise.
• Easy way to tell if your dough has risen enough; push a finger into the dough and if the impression stays, you're golden.  If it bounces back, let it keep on rising until it doesn't.
• With toppings, keep it light, you don't want to weight down the dough, less is definitely more.  But do be generous with the sauce.  Trust me.