DIY Pizza Pie

My name is Stephanie, and I’d like to introduce myself. I’m by no means a writer, a nutritionist, or a fancy chef. However, I AM a resident of Poughkeepsie who likes to eat; I like to eat well, I like to eat fun stuff, and I like to eat a whole lot. So Ithink we probably share than in common. My goal is to share food that is a good foundation for you to build upon and customize for you, your household, and your needs. Think of these recipes as basic formulas for you to fill in with your own preferred ingredients. The other part of my goal is to share recipes that involve the community around us. Poughkeepsie is known to be a food desert, and we are working to change that. Let’s start at our own tables, right?! We could get into the health benefits (both physical and mental) of cooking for yourself and eating at a table with friends or family, but we’ll save that for another post. Now, for the REAL point of our post today. I truly believe one of the main things that holds us all together as human beings is our universal love of man’s greatest invention- pizza. This pizza recipe is incredibly easy, and completely customizable. My mom taught me how to make my own dough about 5 years ago, and ever since then I’ve been making homemade pizzas. It’s fast, easy, and can even be done ahead of time. You’ll be using this recipe for years to come, trust me. Classic Pizza Dough Yields: 1 large rectangular pizza, or 2 medium circular pizzas

Ingredients for Pizza Dough- 1 cup very warm (but not boiling) water 1 tbsp sugar 1 package Active Dry Yeast 3 cups flour (could be all purpose, or a combination of all purpose and whole wheat) 1 tbsp olive oil Directions- Preheat oven to 225° Mix first 3 ingredients together and let sit for about 5 minutes. The liquid will “proof”, so it will gather foam at the top. When you see that, you know your yeast is working.

After about 5 minutes, put the flour into an oven safe mixing bowl and add in the proofed yeast liquid. Next, add the olive oil, then mix all of the ingredients with a wooden spoon (or use just your hands). Mix until all of the ingredients are incorporated and the dough forms into a ball. If it’s too sticky, add more flour, about 1 tbsp at a time. Once the oven is preheated, turn it off. Cover your bowl with a damp towel and put it in the oven for 30 minutes. You want the dough to be able to rise in the warmed oven, not cook. If you don’t have a bowl that can go in the oven, you can put your dough into a deep pot.

After about 30 minutes, your dough should be visibly larger, and probably have doubled in size. Voila! Now comes the fun part! Take the dough out from the oven, and then preheat the oven to 500°. Place your dough ball on a clean surface sprinkled with about 1/4 flour. Push the dough down and knead it a few times, finally flattening it out into the shape and the thickness you want. I prefer cooking one large rectangular pizza in the oven, but you can do 2 circular ones with this recipe as well. Thick crust option: Rolling the dough out so that it is pretty thick, pop it in the oven (without toppings) for 5-7 minutes so that it begins to cook and isn’t raw in the middle when you cook the entire pizza together. Thin, crisp crust option: Roll your dough out very thin, and cook (without any toppings) for 7-9 minutes. I like to put the rack close to the top as well, which really gives it a nice crisp. Top with sauce, cheese, and my preference, lots of veggies! Thicker cut vegetables may have to be cooked a little first on the stovetop before adding to the pizza.