The Pizza

Oh my goodness!  My new food processor is AWESOME! I did make pizza Saturday night and used the new Cuisinart to make the dough.  It has an extra button for dough, and after adding the dry ingredients, you push it first and then the On button as you pour the liquid down the chute.  The accompanying CD said to process for forty-five seconds.  Wow!  It was quiet but effective, because when I stopped it, there was a perfect mass of dough.  I took it out, put in on the flour-dusted counter, gave it a couple of kneads for good measure, and covered it with plastic wrap and left it for about twenty minutes.  When I came back, it has risen quite a bit and was ready to spread on my pizza pan.

I used 1/2 cup of Newman's Own Mushroom Marinara for my sauce and then added a few pieces of quartered Canadian Bacon, some sliced black olives, chopped green pepper and shredded mozarella.  Here's how it looked when it was ready to go in the oven:

Notice that well used pizza pan?  Dan got it for me for Christmas about thirty-five years ago.  He bought it from a restaurant supply house and it's seen a lot of pizzas, most homemade.  

Here's a picture of it hot out of the oven:

It was soooo good!  We had a big salad with it and we enjoyed every bite.  I could make another one right now!  

Here's the recipe I use:

Pizza Dough

1 package dry yeast

1 cup warm water

1 tsp sugar

1/4 tsp salt 

1 T oil

2 1/2 cups flour

Add yeast to warm water and set aside for a few minutes. Add dry ingredients to bowl of food processor and pulse to mix.  Add oil to yeast water and with the processor running, pour down the chute and process for 45 seconds to a minute, depending on your food processor. Take dough out of bowl and shape into a ball on a floured surface.  Cover and let rest for at least twenty minutes. Punch down and roll out on a lightly greased pizza pan that has been sprinked with cornmeal.  Top with favorite pizza ingredients and bake at 425 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes.  

The orginial recipe is pretty standard and comes from an old Betty Crocker cookbook.  I reduced the salt from one teaspoon to 1/4 teaspoon and the oil from two tablespoons to one.  I've even left out the oil and it's been fine.  

I always used my old food processor to make pizza dough and had no complaints although it could be a pain to get the sticky dough out of the bowl due to the design of the old GE.  It was also very loud, so the quietness of my new one was a surprise.  A pleasant one. 

Oh, and a note about the yeast.  A few years ago I discovered a new yeast and I swear by it.  It's saf-instant, the red label (as in red behind the little baker on the front; apparently they make at least one other that's gold behind the baker and I haven't tried that).  I get it at Winco and it can also be ordered from King Arthur Flour.