Survival Sunday 221: Pizza Time!

I love pizza. Seriously. Like, this is a problem I have - I LOVE PIZZA. It's like bread, but with tomatoes, cheese, and cured meats (sometimes veggies, too!).

So of course I had to learn how to make a good homemeade pizza.

But I didn't want to use any yeast, since I hate waiting for the rise (even "instant" or "pizza" yeasts need a little time). And also, I hate having to figure out the perfect temperature, or whatever.

So I found a recipe for yeastless pizza dough!

Now, I'm told this is a "biscuit"-style crust, and I have to say, I'd definitely eat biscuits made from this!

Ingredients for the Crust:

• 1 1/3 Cups flour (I used all-purpose)
• 1 tsp baking powder (make sure you use baking powder and not baking soda, because there's a huge difference in how they interact with the ingredients and the flavors they impart)
• 1/2 tsp salt (whatever kind of salt you like - you could even use a flavored salt to add extra flavor, if you wanted!)
• 1/2 Cup milk (they say non-fat, but... seriously? You're already making pizza. Just use whatever's in your fridge. It's just half a cup.)
• 2 Tbsp olive oil (oh boy you could do a lot with this! Actually, you could probably use any oil... hmm... sesame oil with furikake and sesame seeds baked into the crust? hmm.........)

First, put your flour in a big bowl.

Add your baking powder next.

Finally, add your salt.
I found, the second time I made this, that mixing the dry ingredients up first made the second mixing easier.

When you add your liquids, start with your milk.
We had (I think) 1.5% milk? Whatever we had, I used.
You could probably substitute other milks if you had to, but I'd do that cautiously, since I'm not a chemist and
don't know if the lactic acid in milk is an active ingredient in the leavening process...

Finally, add your olive oil.
Like I said, you might be able to use other oils (especially if you have an olive allergy).
I like olive oil, so that's what I used.

Now, the next thing you want to do is mix this all together and bring it into a ball.
I did this with my hands, but if you use that approach, make sure you use a liberal coating of oil
on your hands to keep the dough from sticking.
Then you knead the dough 10 times.
This can be hard to do if you're limited on space, so I actually just did it in the bowl.

Here is where things get weird.
Pat your dough into a nice ball and cover it.
This is a good time to start preheating your oven.
Mine takes 10 minutes to preheat, which is, coincidentally,
the amount of time you want your dough to rest!

You want to preheat to about 400℉-425℉ (~200℃-230℃)

At this point, I had to leave my phone alone, since my hands were coated with dough and oil. Just be aware that my next steps were these:

I greased the pan I was using with oil, though you can use cornmeal, cooking spray, or parchment. You could also use a pizza stone, which we have, but I'm not confident enough to try that. Maybe next time!

Next you take your dough and either roll it out (which was probably the right approach) or press it out. Again, make sure your fingers are either oiled or floured to prevent sticking. Whether you press or roll your dough, you start from the center and move out towards the edges, that way you avoid a thick center that doesn't cook evenly. I like my crusts pretty middle-of-the-road between thick and thin, so that's how I went.

After your dough is rolled out, it's time for toppings!
I know the recipe says to blind-bake the crust, but... who has time for that?
It's fine to just toss it all on, trust me.
I used all jarred or bagged stuff on this simple pepperoni & cheese pizza!

 At this point, you can put your pizza in the oven and either set the timer or (like I did) just watch it like a hawk. I find that if you wait patiently for the first ten minutes, you'll wind up with a better pizza than one that you obsessively check from start to finish. Your pizza will be done when it's done. You're the best judge of this. I prefer things a little crispier, so I waited for some moderate browning of both cheese and crust. You may like things a little more on they soft and supple side, so you'll take it out just as the crust sets and the cheese melts. You might like a full-on crunchy crust, so you'll wait for a more extreme browning to occur. All of these are valid pizzas.

Heck, there's no egg in this crust, so you'd almost certainly be fine eating the dough. I wouldn't recommend it, though. It's pretty bland without added flavoring (before cooking). Also, raw flour is maybe not great for you.

With luck, your pizza will come out well.
I maybe over-oiled the pan, because when I pulled it out, the pizza slid around!
It was, however, really easy to pull out and cut!

Here is my lovely pizza cut into slices and placed in a Tupperware for portability.

One serving of the dough makes a pizza from about 8-12 inches (20-30cm) across. Mine was maybe 9? Not sure. Regardless, it was really good and more-than-adequately fed two. Technically, we could have served 4, but... uh... Z and I take pizza seriously, so... 2.

The crust itself does really taste like a biscuit! It's a little dense (probably from overkneading), but it has a delightful crispness to the outside and a soft, tender, bready inside. It bakes really well both on top and bottom, and it resists sogginess from the sauce (which I was light with, since both Z and I get heartburn sometimes). Basically, if you need to make a pizza in 30 minutes or less (mine took about 25, start-to-finish?), this works really well.

I made this a second time for Double or Nothing, and it came out great. I made a double batch of the dough and spread it across a whole cookie sheet! It was plenty to feed Z, our Wrestling Friendos, myself, and maybe a couple other friends? I'm pretty sure I left the Wrestling Friendos with the other half of the pizza... I hope they enjoyed it!

I'm so happy with how this crust has consistently turned out that I might try to make mini pizzas or calzones or maybe even mini pizza pockets? Pizza!

Thanks for hanging out for the pizza party here, guys!

Go Enjoy Something!!!
FC