Food Processor Pizza Crust: It’s all about the flour
Food Processor Pizza Crust
Prior to going on my first trip to Italy, I researched places to eat. I also researched what to eat and what not to eat. In my research many people frowned on ordering pizza in Italy, because it was a “touristy” thing to do. However, I have had some of the best pizzas in Italy. On our first trip we ate at a wood-fired pizza at a place just down the street from the Spanish Steps. It was some of the best pizza we had ever eaten by far. Italy pizza is simple and a lot of times just a red tomato sauce over the dough with balls of mozzarella and fresh basil. Unless you don’t like pizza there is no such thing as a bad pizza in Italy. Italy pizza is not precut like we do in America, but you just pull apart the pizza like a piece of bread.
My Homemade Pizza Dough
About 5-6 years ago the frozen organic pizza my husband and I enjoyed wasn’t on the store shelves any longer. At that point and time, I decided to start making my own pizza from scratch. My husband wanted a wheat dough pizza, but an all-wheat dough is not possible as you need the gluten that whole wheat flour doesn’t offer. I was able to create a recipe that was about half wheat and half white flour. Which did the job and was pretty good. However, the crust never seemed to match the flavor of the pizza I had eaten in Italy.
I decided to see what other types of flour I could use for the crust. The flour is key to bringing back the flavor of Italy we had experienced. On one of my trips to the
grocery store I found a flour that was labeled pizza flour. Turns out this is a 00 flour that is used in making pizza in Italy. This 00 flour is why my experience in Italy had been different than my home experience. This is a refined flour with the whitest part of the wheat and milled very fine to a super soft flour. This flour makes for a tender and silky pizza crust. I have developed a combination of 00 flour and wheat flour that brings me back to that pizza crust I experienced in Italy.
Homemade Pizza Ideas
Mozzarella White Cheddar and Pepperoni Pizza – Traveling Garden Lady
Deconstructed Cheeseburger Pizza – Traveling Garden Lady
BBQ Bacon and Onion Pizza – Traveling Garden Lady
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cup pizza flour (must be 00 flour)
- 1 1/3 cup wheat flour
- 1 cup very warm water
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 teaspoons yeast (I use Fleischmann's Active Dry Yeast)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Add pizza flour, yeast, and salt to food processor bowl. Pulse a couple of times to mix the dry ingredients.
- Add olive oil and warm water to the food processor and pulse several times until a sticky dough forms.
- Add wheat flour to dough mixture and pulse a few times to combine. The mixture will turn into a ball and start spinning on the outer edge of the food processor bowl.
- Place dough ball into bowl sprayed with cooking spray or coated with 1/2 tablespoon olive oil. Set in a warm dry place and cover bowl with a dish towel.
- Allow dough to rise for 30-60 minutes prior to using.
- This dough will make either two 12-14-inch pizza circles or three 9-11-inch thin crust pizza circles. I usually divided into thirds, use one and freeze the other 2 dough balls in freezer safe plastic bags.
- To cook I heat my oven with pizza stone on the bottom of the oven to 500 degrees. Once heated I turn down to 450 degrees before baking the pizza.
- Roll out dough and prick with fork to prevent air pockets in the pizza. Brush with 1 tbsp olive oil and par bake for 7 minutes. I prefer par baking as it helps to keep the crust crispy.
- Add toppings and bake for another 7 minutes.
- Per recipe
- Energy: 1380 kcal / 5768 kJ
- Fat: 34 g
- Protein: 40 g
- Carbs: 236 g
