Piece of Cake

Before I get into  my recent pizza dough making experience, I would first like to announce some very exciting news… according to my WordPress Statistics for this blog, www.pieceofcakeblogger.com has recently shown up in a Google Images search! But wait folks… That is not even the exciting part! The exciting part is what was searched for. Now, some of my initial predictions about what someone might have searched in order for my blog to appear in search results included: “How much weight will I gain from making homemade butter?” … “fleur di lis” …. “will making english muffins make me popular?” … but no, my friends. None of these were even close. None of these even compare to the real answer. The search that Piece of Cake came up in on this fateful day… was the following: “FUPA on a skinny person.” That’s right. Some (amazing) human out there Google Image searched “FUPA on a skinny person” and MY BLOG came up! Honestly, I don’t think I would be more excited right now if the search I came up in was “Best blog on planet earth.” Piece of Cake has arrived.

Ok, moving on. Pizza dough.

This past weekend I made homemade pizzas with my little brother. Sam is pretty much the most amazing human I know (in fact, it was probably him searching “FUPA on a skinny person” – I wouldn’t put it past him. That’s how awesome he is). He loves sports, girls, carbohydrates, and WWE and he is basically my hero. Sam also eats pizza for just around 90% of his meals so I trust his judgement on the matter.

This dough is quick to make (rises in about an hour), easy to work with, comes out soft and slightly chewy, and tastes great! Sammy approved, and he’s a tough crowd.

HOMEMADE PIZZA DOUGH

Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 packet yeast

1 teaspoon sugar

2 teaspoons salt

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 1/2 cups warm water

Directions

1.In a medium bowl mix the flours, sugar, yeast and salt together (you can use a stand mixer but we used our hands).

2. Drizzle in the water and 2 tablespoons of the oil and mix until the dough forms into a ball. If the dough is sticky, add additional flour.

3. Knead for a few minutes into a smooth, firm ball.

4. Rub olive oil all over the dough ball, place back into cleaned bowl and cover with a warm, damp cloth. Let rise for about an hour or until the ball doubles in size.

5. Once the dough has risen,  place on a lightly floured surface and divide it into equal pieces.

6. Roll out each piece into your desire shape for pizzas, leaving them about 1/4″ to 1/2″ thick and let rest for a few minutes.

7. Top with your favorite pizza ingredients and bake in a 450 degree oven on a baking sheet or pizza stone for 20 minutes or so until the crust of the dough is hard to the touch. (You might need to roll out and top the dough on a piece of tin foil for easy transfer into the oven if you don’t have a pizza paddle).

8. Remove from the oven and let rest for at least 5 minutes.

Sam kept it simple with straight-up pepperoni but we made another version with ricotta, asparagus, shrimp, red pepper flakes, and mozzarella which was amazing. Enjoy!