O.My.Goodness: Pizza!

I've been wanting to make my own pizza for a long time now. So Johnny and I decided to make it after our exams. On Saturday afternoon, i went to buy the ingredients and came home to make the dough. The recipe told me to "cover the dough with a piece of cloth"... all my towels were dirty so i pulled out a new crappy one and left the dough to rise. Kuh Shr, an hour later, when Mr. Lo came upstairs to roll out the dough... the dough dried up on the top and it didnt rise properly. I should've covered it with plastic wrap and sealed it tightly instead. But o well, what's done is done and we baked it anyway. I dont think i need to go into details on how gross it turned out.

We didnt give up. The next morning we tried it again.....and.... wo duh tien. SO GOOOOD. It made me forget about the Biochemistry NBME I bombed the day before. The crust was crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. The picture below is kinda blurry, but the dough raised beaaauuuutifullyyyy. The only thing i would complain about would be the crust looking kinda bland. But then, i can't do anything about that. We have a crappy oven and mr.lo and i just had to make the most of what we had. But then, who cares about the color when it tastes better than it looks? XD.

Pizza Crust
From: http://allrecipes.com/
INGREDIENTS

• 2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
• 1/2 teaspoon brown sugar
• 1 1/2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

DIRECTIONS

• In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast and brown sugar in the water, and let sit for 10 minutes.
• Stir the salt and oil into the yeast solution. Mix in 2 1/2 cups of the flour.
• Turn dough out onto a clean, well floured surface, and knead in more flour until the dough is no longer sticky. Place the dough into a well oiled bowl, and cover with a cloth. Let the dough rise until double; this should take about 1 hour. Punch down the dough, and form a tight ball. Allow the dough to relax for a minute before rolling out. Use for your favorite pizza recipe.
• Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). If you are baking the dough on a pizza stone, you may place your toppings on the dough, and bake immediately. If you are baking your pizza in a pan, lightly oil the pan, and let the dough rise for 15 or 20 minutes before topping and baking it.
• Bake pizza in preheated oven, until the cheese and crust are golden brown, about 15 to 20 minutes.

We made 2 pizzas with half of the recipe. It is better to prebake your pizza crust for 10 minutes before putting on your toppings. This way crust can bake evenly.

Pizza Sauce
From: http://allrecipes.com/

INGREDIENTS

• 1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• salt to taste
• ground black pepper to taste 1/2 tablespoon dried oregano
• 1/2 tablespoon dried basil
• 1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary, crushed

DIRECTIONS

• Mix together the tomato paste, water, and olive oil. Mix well.
• Add garlic, salt and pepper to taste, oregano, basil, and rosemary.
• Mix well and let stand several hours to let flavors blend.
• No cooking necessary, just spread on dough.

As for the topping, we layered it with ham, pepperoni, Mozzarella cheese, another layer of pepperoni, mushrooms, and more mozzarella.
Seriously, you've gotta try this sometime.