Here I made a classic margherita pizza with a whole wheat crust.
I love pizza! I personally think it should be it’s own food group but those humorless government bureaucrats say "No". Obviously they don’t understand the importance of a large round flat bread covered in all my favorite ingredients and cooked to perfection. Many people never think to make pizza at home/aboard because they think the crust it too difficult. That’s why I’m publishing this recipe, just to show you how easy it really is. One of my first jobs when I was a high school teenager was at the local pizza shop. If a completely clueless teenager can make pizza dough anybody can. One of the greatest benefits of pizza is that there are no rules you can put almost anything you want on it, it’s great for using up those left overs that on their own are not enough to make a meal of, but piled on a pizza crust is perfection!
Ingredients:- 3/4 cup of warm water
- 1 envelope of 2 & 1/2 Tsp of instant yeast
- 2 cups of flour
- 2 tsp sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3Tbsp olive oil
- 1 Tbsp of Italian seasoning (optional)
Extra Info: Cook time:
- 15 minutes of prep, 1 hour of rise time, about 15 minutes of cook time.
- Enough dough to make a 16 inch Large pizza.
- Originally this recipe called for bread flour, but seriously, only the largest boats have room to carry multiple bags of flour, I have tried bread flour, all-purpose flour, and whole wheat flour. They all turn out completely acceptable pizza crust.
- This recipe makes enough dough to make a large 16 inch pizza which may be too large for many marine ovens. You can cut it in half and cook two 8 inch personal sized pizza crusts.
- I have not included toppings in this recipe I’ll leave that up to the chef, but I will say some spaghetti sauce with some mozzarella cheese and what ever odds & ends from the galley makes a great meal.
- If your looking for that New York thin and crispy crust you maybe a little disappointed here. They use those awesomely hot stone based pizza ovens. They’re not very feasible on a boat.
Instructions:
- Put warm water, sugar and yeast in a large bowl let stand for 5 minutes to bloom.
- After the yeast has woken up add the flour, salt, oil, and seasoning
- Mix everything to form a workable ball.
- Now comes the hard part, knead the dough. (5 minutes of hand kneading usually does the trick.)
- Roll the dough into a ball and return to the bowl covered with a tea towel and let it rise for about an hour.
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
- Punch down the pizza dough and roll it out on the counter using a rolling pin or some other cylindrical item. You want something less than a 1/4 inch thick.
- Move the dough to a flat cooking sheet, dusted with corn meal or flour.
- Using a fork, dock the dough so you don’t get any huge bubbles.
- Here’s where things diverge. You can blind cook the pizza crust now and have it ready for later or you can stack your toppings on it and cook everything all at once.
- Cook the pizza/pizza crust in the oven at 425 degree F. for 12-15 minutes or until the top is golden brown.
