Re: Mother Earth Artisan bread dough: Best. Pizza. EVER!

[Trailrider1951]

I had some bread dough left that made a ball about the size of a large navel orange, not really enough for a loaf. So, I decided to make pizza. I rolled out the dough with a rolling pin, like pie crust LOL, and put it into a 9" cast iron skillet that I brushed with olive oil and sprinkled with sesame seeds. After it had rested the required 40 minutes, I topped it with a layer of basil and garlic pesto made by Classico, a layer of thickly sliced fresh tomatoes, and a layer of cheese, a mixture of shredded mozzarella and shredded Parmesan. Baked it in the oven at 400 deg. for about 30 minutes, until the cheese was brown. OMG, this was the BEST pizza I have ever made! The crust was brown on the sides and bottom and chewy, just like I like it. The more I use this recipe, the more I am convinced that it is the ONE PERFECT recipe I have ever encountered. So easy. So cheap. So versatile. And nirvana on the taste buds!

[NMDemDist2]

1. I'm gonna make pizza when my step mom is here

think that recipe would support a bit of sauce poured over the top??

[Trailrider1951]

2. It might! I would just brush it with a bit of olive oil

to keep it from getting soggy. Just my opinion. Experiment! (the dog can have the failures)

[NMDemDist2]

3. yup, that's what I was thinking

and I'm gonna do it over the top, not as a base on the crust

it'll be fun and I have the dough already working so it should have really good flavor developed

:bounce:

[Lucinda]

4. Yours sounds excellent! Isn't it amazing how versitile it is? For thin crust

they say to just roll it out and top it. No rise required.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

5. 5 minute Artisan Bread (the source of the Mother Earth bread) is fine for pizza

We did that this week too altho I was working from the book. It says in the book that the standard boule dough is fine for pizza. They also have a special olive oil pizza dough in the book which just incorporates 1/4 cup olive oil in the dough- I think that's the only difference, I'll have to go find the book and look it up.

Anyway, they say you don't need to do a 2nd rise for pizza after you take it out of the fridge. (Altho I'm sure it can't hurt and maybe would give a fluffier, more risen dough if you do) Just add enough flour to the dough so that you can work with it and roll or stretch it out with your hands and then transfer to the generously corn meal laden peel. In the meantime, you have been heating your pizza stone in a 550 degree oven for 20 minutes.

I waited til the oven heated 15 minutes and then started working with the dough. You start by doing the stretching and pulling the dough underneath 4 times, the same way you do bread and then rolling/stretching your pizza shape.

Transfer to the peel and then put your stuff on. We put on: Sauce, large dice eggplant that had been coated with olive oil, green pepper, black olives, mozzarella and light Parmesan. It cooks very quickly 8-10 minutes and then we gave 3 additional minutes. Fantastic! Light, thin, crunchy crust.

I think your method sounds terrific and easy and wonderful and am anxious to try that as well. Starting right in the pan sounds great - the hardest part of the operation I described above was getting the dough to the peel and you avoided all that.

[Lucinda]

6. You could skip the peel and roll a thin crust on parchment

So many options!