Homemade Pizza... ERROR » Joyful Abode

17th October 2007

Homemade Pizza… ERROR

posted in Food |

This homemade pizza had not one, but TWO glaring errors.

Number 1… the crust didn’t rise. I haven’t used yeast successfully yet. This was my first experience with it. But I thought that you’re supposed to add the yeast to the warm water/sugar/salt, let it do its thing, and THEN add dry ingredients. This recipe didn’t do it that way, so maybe that’s why. Or maybe my yeast was dead. I’ll try something else later and we’ll see.

Number 2… you know how most pizza sauce has a bit of sweetness? I added sugar to my sauce, but I added WAY too much. Not a fan. Oops.

The husband said, “Well, it’s not totally disgusting.”

Ha.

Anyway, do you have a failproof yeasty pizza crust recipe? Preferably something that won’t take an hour and a half to do? What about turning spaghetti sauce into pizza sauce? AND… I used mozerella cheese, which I love, but it didn’t do that stretchy pizza-cheese thing when I bit into it. How is that achieved?

I love pizza and I’d love to know how to make a delicious restaurant-quality pizza at home, but this was NOT it. Please help me!

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 17th, 2007 at 5:59 am and is filed under Food. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

1 On October 17th, 2007, litchicky (aka delinia) said:

When I make pizza at home, I’ll usually defrost a loaf of frozen bread dough following the instructions on the package. After it’s risen, I press it into my pizza pan, and if I have the time, I’ll prebake it for a little while to get that nice crusty bottom. Otherwise, I just bake the pizza with the toppings already on (my hubby’s favorite is sauteed chicken with lots of garlic and onions).

For the sauce, I almost always use straight spaghetti sauce. I’ve also been known to buy the Ragu pizza quick or whatever it’s called. It’s not bad.

If you really want that stretchy cheese thing, you might want to try whole milk mozzarella instead of the usual skim stuff. I’ve only found it in blocks, never pre-shredded.

Hope this helps!

posted on October 17th, 2007 at 6:48 am

2 On October 17th, 2007, Amanda said:

I kinda use spaghetti sauce as pizza sauce. I just use a can of tomato sauce(or crushed tomatoes), add some garlic, oregano, crushed red pepper, and a bay leaf. I let that simmer for an hour or so. I think the tomatoes by themselves give enough sweetness to it so I don’t add any sugar.

And for the mozzarella, I use the big pieces of mozzarella instead of shredded and it gives me the ooey gooey goodness.

I have no crust recipes though. I’m the girl that uses the canned refrigerated dough because I’m too lazy to make my own.

posted on October 17th, 2007 at 7:29 am

3 On October 17th, 2007, Leslie said:

In every yeast dough recipe I’ve used, you don’t mix the salt with the water/sugar/yeast mixture since I believe it kills the yeast. :/

I’ve had good luck with this recipe:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Quick-and-Easy-Pizza-Crust/Detail.aspx

Hope this helps.

posted on October 17th, 2007 at 8:10 am

4 On October 17th, 2007, mub said:

http://www.fabulousfoods.com/recipes/breads/yeast/pizzadough.html

That’s the recipe I always use to make pizza dough, but it really does take awhile for it to rise… I just toss it into my breadmaker on the dough setting and don’t mess with it until it beeps. I use basic spaghetti sauce (without meat and chunks of onion) for my sauce and it works out really well. I only get stringy cheese when I use mozzarella packed in water. I don’t know if it’s because the pre-shredded kind has such a low moisture content or what.

I am curious about the recipe you used for the dough, because sometimes I want a thin crunchy non-yeasty recipe!

posted on October 17th, 2007 at 8:11 am

5 On October 17th, 2007, Stormimay said:

Hey, someone else with yeast issues! lol I was a good cook/baker for years before I managed to figure out yeast; I felt like such a failure there. I learned by starting with yeast-based sourdough starters from allrecipes.com I know that using yeast in sourdough starter is cheating, but it works and it’s easier.
I just use plain spaghetti sauce for pizza.
Whole milk mozzarella is much better if you want strings. You may have to look for it in a different section of the grocery store. I haven’t tried it packed in water. I like adding shredded colby/jack to my pizzas too.

posted on October 17th, 2007 at 8:38 am

6 On October 17th, 2007, Doug said:

Unless it is a recipe which explicitly needs a slow rise, starting your yeast separately as you described should be a defaut action. I’d even hold off on the salt until I knew the yeast was started (foamy). Salt slows the little guys doing their job.

posted on October 17th, 2007 at 10:46 am

7 On October 17th, 2007, Sarah said:

I’m a big fan of the pizza dough recipe in How to Cook Everything — works every time!

posted on October 17th, 2007 at 12:11 pm

8 On October 17th, 2007, charlie said:

Ditto on the whole milk mozzarella. It’s better anyway.

When I made pizza dough, I’d put it in the bathroom to rise while a shower of only hot water was running with the curtain open. Obviously I’d turn off the water at a certain point, but the hot moistness is achieved very easily that way.

posted on October 17th, 2007 at 1:58 pm

9 On October 18th, 2007, yayanana said:

Absolutely on the whole milk mozzerella! and for the sauce, if you make a seasoned sauce based on tomato paste, you might be real happy.

posted on October 18th, 2007 at 5:10 am

10 On October 18th, 2007, BreadBox said:

Doug is right about the salt: it can even kill the yeast if you are unlucky. I’d recommend checking out the website of A Year In Bread at http://ayearinbread.earthandhearth.com/
They have lots of good recipes, and in particular some good pizza stuff. I’d also be happy to send you some recipes I wrote up when I was teaching breadmaking on a semi-regular basis. Email me if you want them.

A tip for cutting the prep time after a long day at work: make the dough a day or four ahead of time, put it in a ziplock bag in the fridge (make sure that there is enough room in the bag for the dough to expand!) Take it out a half hour or so before you want to bake it: let it relax, stretch it or spin it, top it and bake it.

N.

posted on October 18th, 2007 at 6:35 pm

11 On February 6th, 2008, Homemade Pizza - Success! » Joyful Abode said:

[…] The last time I tried to make homemade pizza, it resulted in a sad looking product that had my husband saying, “Well, it’s not totally disgusting.” […]

posted on February 6th, 2008 at 11:00 am

12 On August 5th, 2008, A Homemade Italian Feast - Veggie+Meat Lasagna, Homemade Italian Bread » Joyful Abode said:

[…] tried to make homemade bread dough several times, mostly for pizza crust. First I had a major ERROR, then a success with the help of the bread machine, and then another bread-machine-less ERROR. It […]

posted on August 5th, 2008 at 6:01 am