“Chef Andy” Pizza (revised and updated)

For several weeks, I’ve been experimenting with a couple recipes to make the best pizza I can from scratch at home. I’ve gotten it pretty good after a lot of trial and error. This is what I’ve come up with.

For the crust, I use the following recipe for a deep-dish dough, which is no different than the one I previously posted. I just figured out the best way to bake it.

1 1/3 cup water
2 teaspoons sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons cornmeal
2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1 cup bread flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
3/8 teaspoon MSG (optional)
1 1/2 teaspoons yeast

(You may use all-purpose flour for this recipe if doing it by hand).

Bread machine: Add ingredients to machine bread pan in order given or as per manufacturer’s instructions. Set to ‘dough’ mode.

Since the original post, I have tried with MSG (a product called “Accent”), it doesn’t seem to add enough to the taste to recommend it. I also found a much better way to bake it. Almost as important as the ingredients themselves is how you prepare this. It is best to have a pan that is made for deep-dish pizzas. Mine is about a 12″ metal (aluminum?) pan that I bought online from a restaurant supply website. I let the bread machine do it’s thing, and then take it out when it is done (when it beeps). Before putting it in the pan, I add about 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil to the pan. This is important – don’t just spray it with Pam and call it good. 3 Tbps of oil is more than what’s needed to keep the dough from sticking to the pan, it also served the purpose of frying the dough a little while it’s in the oven, which results in a much better tasting crust. Once the pan is oiled, put the dough in it and press it out to fill the pan. Leave the edges a little thicker than the middle to give a nice crust edge when it’s done baking. Then give it another hour or so to rise some more before adding sauce, cheese, and toppings.

For sauce, we used the Ragu stuff you can buy by the gallon at Sam’s club for about $3 for years. It works, but it makes a pretty pathetic pizza. Spend a little extra money and get some good sauce. Our local grocery store stocks sauce from several local chains, including Green Mill, Davani’s, and Rocky Rococco. We like the Green Mill the best, but any of them are better than the Ragu (I’d rate the Ragu about 3 out of 10 and the worst of the chain sauces about a 7). However, if you really want a good sauce that you make yourself from scratch, I created the following recipe after a bit of experimenting that is quite good:

1 (8 oz.) can of Tomato Sauce
1 (6 oz.) can of Tomato Paste
1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
1 teaspoon Sugar
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/2 teaspoon Basil
1/2 teaspoon Oregano
1/2 teaspoon Garlic Powder
1/4 teaspoon Onion Powder
1/8 teaspoon Black Pepper

Just mix it all together and apply to your pizza crust. You’ll get a lot more out of this recipe than you need for one pizza. Depending on how much you like to put on, you may be able to get two pizzas out of it.

We have a convection oven, and I like to bake the pizza at 375 degrees for about 15 minutes, but your millage may vary. My experience with the convection oven is that it bakes about twice as fast as a normal oven. If you don’t have convection, I would guess it would take about 25 minutes to bake, but that is just a guess. It’s a homemade recipe, so pick a temp and keep an eye on it.

Of course the cheese and toppings are up to you. Everyone likes their pizza their own way. I like to fry up a bunch of bacon, tear it into small pieces after it’s cooked, and have pepperoni and bacon pizza.

You may have to experiment a little until you get it the way you like it, that’s okay. A few mediocre pizzas is worth getting it figured out. Now that I have it down, I like my pizza every bit as much as a restaurant pizza.