Pizza! Pizza!

Lately pizza has been the buzz. Everyone seems to be making it. I was truly inspired by Aggie of Aggie's Kitchen and by my friend Mike who I have recently been reacquainted with. Aggie recently did a post for Foodbuzz's 24,24,24 and it was all about pizza! Check her post out - she has some amazing toppings for the pizza not to mention a killer beverage!

My friend Mike tossing his pizza - I'm totally impressed!

Mike and I went to high school together and he, his wife and I have been back in touch through Facebook. Mike likes to make NY pizza and he has perfected it to his liking! He does refrigerate his dough, which I have found is what makes the best dough from my Daring Baker's experience!

Mike showing his pizza off! I need to get a pizza peel!!

He posted a few pictures and has given me permission to post them here to share with you. The recipe on the other hand is being guarded for now as I hope to talk to Roberta (Mike's wife) about collaborating on a cookbook together and that recipe would be included in the cookbook (if it actually happens!).

Mike's end result - a pizza with bubbles that he is quite proud of!

Now on to my pizza! Since I don't have a lot of "energy" as of late and because I have the cookbook, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, I decided to make the Olive Oil Pizza Dough to have on hand. I liked the fact that I could have my thin crust pizza and still make Grumpy his "pan" type pizza and have the dough on hand whenever I needed it without all the work.

I love the convenience of this dough!!!!

For my toppings I went all vegetarian. I used chopped green bell pepper, mushrooms, sliced cherry tomatoes, and one vegetarian sausage patty (from Morningstar Farms).

Olive Oil Dough
From Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day

Makes 4-1lb loaves.

2-3/4 cups lukewarm water
1-1/2 tablespoon granulated yeast
1-1/2 tablespoon salt (I used what they called for - next time I would use half of the salt. The dough was saltier than I like it to be.)
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
6-1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

Mix the yeast, salt, sugar, and olive oil with the water in a 5-quart bowl, or a lidded (not airtight) food container.

Mix in the flour without kneading. I used my stand mixer with dough hook, but you can use a spoon.

Cover (not airtight), and allow to rest at room temperature until dough rises and colapses (or flattens on top), approximately 2 hours.

The dough can be used immediately after the initial rise, though it is easier to handle when cold. Refrigerate in a lidded (not airtight) container and use over the next 12 days.

To bake my pizza (I made a personal size pizza) I took a handful of dough and had to use some extra flour (it was a bit on the sticky side for me) and spread it out. I topped with my toppings and then slid the pizza in the oven that had been pre-heated with the pizza stone in it - to 500 degrees. I baked it for about 15 minutes. While I like this crust, I will be trying my friend Mike's recipe next. The one thing that makes this a good one - is that I was able to have it in my fridge and just pulled it out to make when I needed it. Convenience food at it's best!