Thick American-Style Pizza

Tonight's hand-tossed pizza.

Okay, I think and talk about pizza a lot.  And, I have already covered the topic of at-home pizza making before (although in an offensive way).  I should probably just stop.

I can't.  The pizza I made tonight was satisfactory to even the most delicate foreign palette.  My wife told our Korean friends that I used to work at a pizza joint. They excitedly asked if I hand toss my dough, to which I replied in the affirmative, and before I knew it my wife had volunteered me to demonstrate the process for them to watch.  Talk about pressure, I have never had to toss in front of a camera before (I'll include the video here if they ever send it to me).  Luckily I didn't tear the dough or smack it against the ceiling.  Here's the recipe.

Dough
1 c warm water
2 tsp active dry yeast
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
2 Tbs olive oil
2 1/2 to 3 1/2 cups flour

Mix the yeast with warm water and let sit long enough for the yeast to dissolve completely.  Mix in all the other ingredients before adding any flour.  Add the flour while mixing 1/2 cup at a time until the dough gets close to being able to clean the bowl, then add it a spoonful at a time.  You want the down to not be sticking to the bowl, and be able to be pulled into a window - but still be as wet as possible.

Oil a bowl and your hands.  Shape the dough into a ball by holding it with both hands and pushing up into the dough with your fingers several times.  Don't do this so much that the dough gets all ripped up, just enough so that the surface feels tight.  Place the dough in the bowl, cover, and let rise for 30 minutes.  Punch the dough down, fold, and let rise another 15 minutes or so.  Place the dough ball on a floured surface and slap it flat with your hand into a circle.  You can stretch the circle larger by holding an edge and letting gravity do the work by moving your hands around the circumference, or you can put the circle on the BACK of your hands and toss in the air with a spin.  Both work.  Put the dough on your cooking surface (I prefer a screen) and work around the edges until it fits just right.

A good pizza starts with good ingredients.  I recommend spicy cappacola, marinated kalamata olives, fresh romano tomatoes, basil, and fresh shredded romano cheese.

I basted the crust of this pizza with butter, then sprinkled it with a small amount of garlic salt and oregano.  Pour your sauce (I like Chef Boyardee) in the center of the pie and spread with the back side of a large spoon.

Okay now for the toppings.  I am picky about these.  I always start with a thin layer of shredded romano, then maybe a small amount of cheddar or mozzarella.  By thin layer, I mean lightly sprinkled so that you can still see the sauce.  Next, on one half I put spicy cappacola, chardonnay marinated kalamata olives, and creamy havarti.  The other half was fresh basil, tomatoes, and the havarti.  Gut the tomatoes first.

The assembled pie ready for the blazing hot oven.

Bake your pizza as hot as you can for your cooking surface and pizza thickness.  On a cookie sheet this is probably 425 F, on a screen 500-600 F, on a stone you can go up to around 800 F.  Since the dough on this pizza was thick, I cooked it at about 550 F for about 10 minutes.  Commercial pizza ovens cook pizza for about 6 minutes at 600-650, a really good brick oven pizza will cook in about 90 seconds.

For the first 5 minutes, include a pan of boiling water on the bottom of your oven.  This helps the crust and dough be chewier, and gives a browner color.  Remove the water after 5 minutes so that crust will be crispy on the outside.

I am the baker, I bake the cakes.  Make no mistake, I like to bake.