White Pizza

To begin this post, I wanted to say many thanks to everyone who has viewed this blog and to the individuals who follow this blog faithfully. In it's first week, this blog received 130 page views and my husband was so proud that he suprised me (early) with my new Kitchenaid Artisan Stand Mixer. I have wanted one for so long and cannot begin to explain how excited I was. This will make my baking so much easier. So once again, thank you so much.

Friday nights are family nights at our house. It's a chance for all of us to wind down after a long week and spend time together watching movies or playing games. On Friday nights I usually cook light so I have more time to spend with everyone and also because the kids like having popcorn and snacks during the movie. So we've adopted Friday night as pizza night.

The recipe I'm going to share with you today is one that I haven't been using for very long- around 6 months. I got this recipe from watching "Kitchen Boss" on TLC, Buddy Valastro. I tried this recipe and was not only suprised by how easy it was but it was just as delicious as any take out pizza dough. This recipe is super easy, but there are many steps to it so I've accompanied many pictures with the step by step instructions.

Recipe:

3 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
a pinch of salt
1 packet dry active yeast
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
9 oz warm water

Using the dough hook on your mixer add flour, salt, yeast and olive oil. Stir for a few seconds to incorporate the ingredients.

At low speed, mix as you slowly pour in the warm water. As dough becomes wet and sticky you will need to bump the speed up to medium. Mix well for about a minute. Dough should pull away from the sides of the bowl when done.

Flour surface well and knead dough for 2-3 minutes. Push the dough forward with the heels of your hands and then fold the dough back towards you, rotate dough counter clockwise and knead again. Repeat this until the dough feels tight and smooth.

Place rounded dough ball in a bowl and drizzle 1 tsp of extra virgin olive oil on the top and smooth the entire surface of the dough with your hand. This prevents a dry, crusty layer from forming on the surface of the dough.

Cover bowl with a towel and place bowl in a warm area to continue rising. This will take about 45 minutes. The dough will double in size.

Cut rounded dough ball in half, and roll out pizza dough onto a pizza stone. For thicker crust roll dough about 8 inches in diameter. For thinner crust roll dough between 10 and 12 inches. At this point you can put any toppings that you prefer on your dough. Bake in a preheated oven at 375 degrees for 20-30 minutes. Oven times will vary from person to person depending on oven brand and toppings.

Brush a thin layer of extra virgin olive oil on the pizza dough with a pastry brush before adding toppings. We like "white pizza" which contains no sauce- just ricotta cheese, thin tomato slices and mozzerella cheese. My boys love this recipe.

For "white pizza" just spread a thin layer of ricotta cheese on the dough after brushing on the olive oil. Slice a few tomatoes (very thin) and layer them on top of the ricotta cheese. Then top with mozzerella cheese. I use a block of mozzerella sliced into small rectangles because this leaves brown, bubbly layers of cheese on top and then after the pizza has baked I sprinkle a little bit of shredded mozzerella cheese on top to fill in any holes. My boys love the different textures of the cheese.