#31 Cornmeal Pizza Dough

Again, this is a different recipe from the original recipe in the Homemade Pantry* because I was making taco pizza and wanted a cornmeal pizza crust. So I found this one from Martha Stewart. It was really easy to make up the day before and keep it in the fridge until I needed it! I decided to use my Kitchenaid to do the work, so check out the recipe here, if you want to make this by hand.

Cornmeal Pizza Crust
Makes (4) 10-14" pizzas

4 tsp. yeast
Sugar
1 1/3 cups warm water
3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
3 tsp. salt
4 Tbsp. olive oil (plus more for bowl)

1. In a small bowl, sprinkle the yeast and sugar over the warm water. Let stand until yeast is dissolved and mixture is foamy. About 10 minutes. See the foam layer in photo below.

 

 

2. Combine flour, cornmeal, and salt in your warmed mixer bowl and add the yeast mixture and oil.

 

 

 

Use the stir mixer setting and mix until the dough comes together.  Then switch to the dough hook and knead the dough in the mixer for 7-10 minutes. Medium speed.

 

 

Your dough ball is a good one if it climbs the dough hook and cleans the sides of the bowl. If it is dry, add a 1/2 Tbsp. of water. If it is too sticky. Add 1/2 Tbsp. of flour. Amounts may vary.

 

Divide the dough into (4) 8 0z. dough balls.

 

 

Then add your dough balls to a well-oiled bowl. Turning the dough to coat with oil.

 

 

Cover with plastic wrap and let rise one hour at room temperature or overnight in the refrigerator.

 

When making pizza follow these directions......

 

Preheat oven to 500 degrees with pizza stone on lowest rack. Stretch each dough ball into a 10-14 inch round. Sprinkle cornmeal on a pizza peel or inverted baking sheet. Place dough round on top, and cover with toppings, as desired.

 

Slide rounds onto pizza stone, and bake until crisp and golden and toppings are bubbling. 5-7 minutes.

 

I did not have a pizza peel, so making my taco pizza according to the above directions was not really an easy task. I have since purchased a pizza peel:) I got it here. If you have a pizza stone, a peel really is neccessary. It's a pretty small investment....about the $ of a small take-out pizza:) If you do not have a pizza stone, then stretch your crust onto an oiled pizza pan or baking sheet and go from there.

 

*This crust was excellent for taco pizza. This fall, I plan to blog the original pizza crust recipe from the book, but I wanted to wait until I had my home-grown tomatoes to make homemade tomato pizza sauce. So watch for that this fall:)