Pizza, pizza
Jul 19, 2010 My boyfriend fiancé husband Chris and I are pizza junkies. We go through the two day, pizza making process at least once a week. Chris would probably make pizza for dinner every night if he could. We met on Christmas Eve at a bar called The Prop in Watertown, South Dakota. I was studying in Lincoln, Nebraska and he was living in Boston, Massachusetts but geography didn't phase us. The second time I went to Boston to visit him, he suggested that we make homemade pizza. I bought him a pizza stone for Valentine's Day a few weeks later. It was true love.
Before Chris, my pizza making days were spent with my grandfather, Will Snittjer or Papa as his grandchildren called him. Regardless of the weather Papa always wore shorts with knee-high socks. He usually paired this stylish shorts-and-knee-high-sock combo with a polo shirt. I'll forever picture him in one of two shirts, one is a dark, burgundy red color or the other is a yellow shirt with one large white stripe across the chest with "Willy Maze Sports Cafe" written on it. That was the name of his sports bar at the Drake Motor Inn. Willy for Will and Maze for my Nona Maze instead of the Willie Mays. Get it? What a guy.
During his younger years, Papa was a commander in the Navy and after retiring, he owned Pizza Huts in Manitoba, South Dakota, and Nebraska. To add to my family pizza history, my mother met my father, Ken, when he was managing one of Papa's restaurants in Omaha. Eventually, Papa settled down to two Pizza Huts, one in Redfield and the other in Mobridge, South Dakota along with a few other restaurants in Watertown.
Aside from pizza, Papa loved basketball. When he coached our elementary school basketball teams, he required his players to wear yellow knee pads because he said that they would allow us to be "scrappier" on the court. We would run these drills where we'd sprint across the court and then slide on our knees. I imagine he thought the knee pads served a psychological purpose more than anything and it worked because I sure thought I was scrappy.
We frequently practiced basketball together at home too and during our breaks from shooting and passing drills in my parent's driveway, we made pizza.
Papa's "semi-homemade," kid proof pizza would put a smile on Sandra Lee's face. All you need is a pre-made Boboli pizza crust, Boboli pizza sauce, canadian bacon, shredded mozzarella and olive oil. I am confident that Papa simplified this recipe as much as he could for a 10 year old. Above all, however, he was adamant about the pizza making process. I must brush the said Boboli crust with olive oil first, then place a thin(!) layer of pizza sauce over the dough. Next, it was on to the light coating of cheese, followed by the toppings, and then finally the topcoat of cheese. "Lefty, don't put too much cheese in the very middle," Papa would explain. He gave me the nickname "lefty" because it was a struggle to get me to dribble a basketball with my left hand. The only time I aggravated him as his sous-chef was when I ate the toppings as I went. I would dip the thin, coin-sized canadian bacon slices into the bowl of pizza sauce and then toss them in my mouth. One for the pizza, one for me. One for the pizza, one for..."ERIN!!" He scolded.
Papa passed away when I was 12. I kept his yellow coaching whistle and white, dry-erase basketball court clipboard on the top shelf of my closet and nearly quit making pizza until Chris and I met.
Chris is obsessed with pizza. I mean, I love pizza, but Chris thinks its gold. He's a computer scientist so I guess he would think that pizza, rather than being gold, was more like [inset hacker term here]. When we lived 1499 miles apart, Chris and I would have "pizza date nights" on Sunday. Over Skype, Chris made his incredible, Bianco-approved pizza while I made my Boboli pizza. Then we'd watch a movie and chow down. Now that we live in Seattle, I get spoiled with pizza nights and the one you see pictured below is our latest.
Papa and Chris's pizzas couldn't differ more but that's not the point. I'm still the sous-chef (or sous-pizzaiolo now), but I enjoy it that way. I still eat the toppings as I make a pizza and I still get scolded for it, nowadays by Chris. Papa would be proud.
Chris's Dough Recipe:
1 3/4 cups + 2 tablespoons warm water
2/3 cake (0.4 oz) Fleischmann's fresh active yeast (cake yeast)
22.5 ounces (5 cups) all purpose (AP) flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
Method:
Break cake yeast apart into the warm water to dissolve. Combine flour, salt, and sugar in mixing bowl.
Using the dough hook attachment, place the mixer on a low speed. Add olive oil to dry ingredients and continue mixing until incorporated.
Slowly add yeast-water mixture and continue mixing on low for 2-3 minutes, until the dough comes together (no flour crumbs are left).
Turn off the mixer and allow the dough to rest in the bowl for 5 minutes.
Then, returning to the mixer, work the dough on a medium speed for 2 minutes, or until dough pulls away from the sides of the mixing bowl. Note that this is a wetter dough, so it will likely stick to the bottom.
To ensure the dough is ready, conduct what is called "the windowpane test":
Break off a small piece of dough, roll it in your palms. Then, twisting with two hands, stretch lightly and untwist. What you are looking for are translucent areas in the dough, these are the "windowpanes." Holding the dough up to the light may help. See photo set D. below for an illustration.
Once the dough is ready, pour from the mixing bowl onto a floured surface. Knead the dough lightly to shape it. Cut it into three equal pieces. Place each dough into a container, lightly dust with flour, and allow them to rest for 15 minutes. After the resting period, refrigerate the dough overnight (at least 18 hours, longer than that is fine). This is called proofing the dough. Remove the dough from the fridge the following day, at least 2.5 hours before use.
Preparing your pizza:
We use a pizza stone in a convection oven preheated to 550 degrees to bake our pizzas. The method for preparing your pizza is not meant to be prescriptive; making pizza at home is all about doing what you like and trying new ingredients and/or fresh combinations of ingredients. We have, however, developed a "general order of things" that, for the most part, stays the same regardless of what we're putting on the pizza. If you'd like, start with ours and use it to develop your own. On this particular night we made a white pizza, meaning a pizza minus red sauce.
General order of things:
1. After shaping your pizza dough on a floured surface, place it on a pizza peel (see photo sets H. and I. below).
2. Brush the dough lightly with olive oil.
3. Add a light layer of aged, shredded mozzarella.
4. Place the fresh mozzarella medallions on the pizza, along with additional toppings and parmesan cheese.
5. Drizzle a small amount of olive oil and sprinkle a pinch of sea salt on the very top to finish.
If you want sauce on your pizza, insert that step between steps 2 and 3. Like Papa, I'm going to tell you to restrain yourself with the sauce. Not too much now!
Bake in preheated oven for 4-7 minutes, or until desired doneness.
Eat. Enjoy! It's good, isn't it? Day One A Day Two G H I J A. CDR Essentials Left: American Pie, by Peter Reinhart, is Chris's favorite pizza book. Center: Chris adores his monogrammed chef's apron. I'm always trying to find him good pizza gifts. This one was a hit. Right: We purchased this bag of Wheat Montana Natural White AP flour while driving through Montana during our cross-country move to Seattle. It is a high protein, unbleached flour. B. Dough Preparation C. Dough Preparation Continued D. The "Windowpane" Test E. Knead and Shape F. Cut, Shape, and Contain G. Fresh Ingredients H. Shape the Pizza I. Building the Toppings J. YUM!
(click on images to enlarge in pop-up window)
B
C
D
E
F 
Note the picture on the right. I'm going to go ahead and warn you that using your hand to scrap down the sides of the mixing bowl, while it is running, like Chris is doing here is simply a bad idea! Please use a spatula and turn off the mixer people. :)
We like to use individual Glad containers (Right) to proof the dough.
Left: Ah, roasted garlic! I usually roast garlic by cutting off the top quarter of a head of garlic, placing it in a small ramekin like the one pictured, and drenching it in olive oil. After I sprinkle it with kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, I cover it with foil and roast it at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes. It works great because when its finished, you simply squeeze it to pop the cloves out onto your pizza! As a bonus, because of the ramekin catches the excess oil, we can drizzle the now garlic infused olive oil onto the pizza. Center: Chris and I always buy our aged mozzarella in blocks and then shred it as we need to. Right: We grow our herbs in containers in the backyard. I enjoy heading out there, cutting some sprigs off of the plants and storing them in mini vases like this one as though they were flowers.
Chris shaping the pizza dough.
This pizza is one of my favorites. It has four cheeses: aged mozzarella, fresh mozzarella, parmesan, and fresh ricotta cheese. We added caramelized scallions to our fresh ricotta (the recipe for five minute ricotta is here) and topped the pizza with fresh oregano and basil.
Left and Right: Our second pizza was a roasted garlic and olive pizza (with the same cheese combination). I like to grab pizza ingredients, like these kalamata olives, from my grocery store's salad bar. I can buy just the amount we need, which saves us some cash and time. Center: Scallion ricotta pizza ready to eat!
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