I wasn't sure about using a food processor for pizza dough.. but it actually turned out great! It was much easier then trying to knead the dough by hand. I made a double batch, because I wanted to make calzones. I put both in separate bowl to rise, but for some reason the second ball of dough did not rise for me.. I'm not sure what happened. .. if anyone has any advice, please leave me some feedback.
I defrosted the dough today and made the calzones on my George Foreman, I have a recipe book that came with it and has a recipe for these.
I divided the dough into 5 balls and rolled it out. I prepared the pizza sauce with roasted garlic and put a couple of tablespoons on each calzone, added some peppers, pepperoni, cheese and some seasonings, folded and pinched to seal. I then placed them on the George Foreman and "grilled" for 7-8 mintues... they turned out great.
I wanted to bake them this time around because I've never tried it that way before, but my husband had to go to work and I wanted to feed him before he had to leave and this was much quicker. Delicious outcome!
Perfect Pizza Crust
(from Cooks Illustrated)
1 1/4 tsp instant or active dry yeast
1 cup water, slightly warm or room temperature
1 3/4 cups (8 3/4 oz) all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface
1 cup (4 oz) cake flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
Preheat the oven to 500F with your baking stone on the oven rack.
Combine yeast and water and stir to dissolve.
Combine flours, salt and sugar in the bowl of a food processor and pulse to blend. With the motor running, stream in water/yeast mixture. Continue to process for 1-2 minutes, until dough becomes smooth and satiny. Add an extra tablespoon of flour if the dough becomes too sticky (see photos).
Divide dough into two and shape each piece into a tight ball. Place on a lightly floured surface and cover with lightly oiled plastic wrap or a clean dish towel. Let rise for 1 hour, or until doubled in size.
Working with one ball of dough at a time, place on a lightly floured surface. Flatten the dough into an 8-inch disk, then stretch the edges gently until the dough is about 12-inches in diameter, rotating the dough by quarter turns as you work. You can also gently stretch the dough by placing it on the backs of your hands, letting the weight of the dough stretch it out.
Transfer the stretched dough onto a baking sheet that has been covered with cornmeal (you can use a pizza peel, if you have one). Spread it with a small amount of the sauce (see recipe below), toppings of your choice and slide it quickly into the oven.
Bake pizza at 500F for 5-10 minutes, until well browned.
Retrieve pizza with baking sheet or pizza peel.
Serve immediately and repeat process with second piece of dough.Makes 2, 12-inch pizzas
Note: You can also use the “convection bake” setting, if your oven has one, and reduce the cooking time by 1-2 minutes. This allows for extra air circulation and could result in a slightly crisper crust, as well as a quicker cooking time.
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