Pizza Dough

I spent two summers in the pizza business.  Before my freshman year of college I delivered pizza for Domino's Pizza.  Domino's makes their dough in large regional facilities and ships it by refrigerated truck to the stores, where it is stored in refrigerators until a couple of hours before it is needed.  Prior to my sophomore year of college I worked for Mr. Gatti's Pizza.  My shift started with mixing the dough for the next day.  I also made pizzas for the buffet, delivered pizzas as needed, refreshed the salad bar, and cleaned the kitchen!

This pizza dough recipe represents the culmination of years of experience in developing the perfect dough!  When I first started making pizzas, I used a bread machine to mix the dough.  However, after a while, I realized it was faster to mix the dough by hand.  As I continued to study dough recipes, I came across a valuable tip that I had forgotten:  mix the dough the day before and let it slow-rise in the refrigerator.  This gives the dough a commercial quality consistency.

The recipe below probably most closely resembles the dough of California Pizza Kitchen. 

Prepare
Although you can use this dough immediately after mixing, allowing it to rise as directed below, and additionally allowing it to rest in the refrigerator for 24 hours, improves the consistency of the dough.

This makes one approx. 12 to 14-inch pizza or two personal pizzas.

Ingredients
2 1/4C flour
1t salt
1pkg rapid rise yeast*
3/4C water
3T olive oil

Directions
Combine flour, salt, and rapid rise yeast.  Heat water to temperature specified on yeast packet (typically 120-130 degrees).  Add water and oil to flour mixture and mix well, continuing to knead for several minutes.

Place in a bowl and let rise in a warm place** for approximately 1 hour or until dough has doubled in size.  Punch down the dough and place in a plastic container or plastic bag and place in the refrigerator overnight (24 hours).

Set out the dough 30-60 minutes before eating time.  Roll out or press out dough to the desired thickness (I like the "hand tossed" style that pizza restaurants have).  Using a fork, poke small holes in the dough to prevent bubbles from occurring during baking (I use a professional dough docker).  Preheat the oven to 475 degrees.  Add sauce, toppings, and cheese as desired and bake for 12 minutes.  Remove from oven, slice as desired, and enjoy!

* If using regular yeast, combine a packet of yeast with 1/4t sugar in 1/4c water (remaining water needed recipe would be 1/2c) heated to 100-110 degrees.  Allow to set for 10 minutes.  Small bubbles should form indicating that the yeast is still active.

** Place the bowl in an UNHEATED oven.  Set the temperature to 400 degrees and allow to preheat for 1 minute (60 seconds).  Turn off the oven.  This will achieve the ideal temperature for dough to rise.

Tasty Breakfast Gravy

On most Sundays, we have pancakes for breakfast.  Occasionally I prefer some variety.  Biscuits with gravy is a favorite of mine.  This post is for the gravy which should always accompany biscuits at breakfast!  The traditional white sauce recipe calls for oil and flour to be combined in the sauce pan with milk added after the flour/oil mix has browned a little bit.  This recipe omits the oil, but the final results are just as tasty.  By substituting sausage with a vegetarian substitute you can achieve a healthier breakfast without compromising on taste.

Prepare
Preheat sauce pan over medium heat.

Ingredients**
3-4T flour
2C milk
Salt and pepper to taste
Pinch of sage
Vegetarian sausage substitute (Morning Star, etc.) chopped into small pieces and at room temp*

Directions
Place the flour in the preheated sauce pan and stir constantly until the flour begins to brown.  Stir the salt, pepper, and sage into the milk.  Pour the milk into the sauce pan.  Using a small wire whisk, stir the milk until the small clumps of flour are dissolved.  Continue stirring constantly until the mixture thickens.  Once the sauce begins to boil, cook for an additional minute.  Stir in chopped sausage.  Continue cooking for an additional minute and serve over biscuits, rice, or toast.

*Note
You can also use chopped tofu or boiled eggs in place of sausage.

**Note
For a medium consistency, the ratio of flour to milk is 1T of flour per 1/2 cup of milk.