Here you can follow the process from dough to pizza box. I am not a professional baker; I'm a mom with a mill and a mixer and a desire to provide yummy, wholesome bread for her babies. :) Hopefully, seeing some of the process "in action" will be helpful as you make pizza from a pizza recipe (see p. 29 of my cookbook) or my bread recipe. From a standard two-loaf bread recipe, I make two rectangular pizzas, two or three 15-inch, or three 12-inch pizzas.
Pizza with Less Mess!
1. One pizza's dough, on parchment, atop flat cookie sheet. This is 100% whole grain dough (the dark specks are ground flax seeds).
2.Roll the dough out to fit pizza stone (which is preheating in oven). If needed, trace stone onto parchment before heating stone.
3. Simple sauce: half an 8-oz can tomato sauce.
4. Add about 1 Tbsp Italian seasoning; spread by hand (or spoon back) to edges of crust.
5. Pizza crust covered with sauce and spices.
6. Add Mozzarella cheese and other cheeses, as desired.
7. Here I've added some freshly-grated Parmesan atop the Mozzarella.
8. Our toppings: fresh spinach and turkey pepperoni, cut into fourths with kitchen scissors.
9. Add toppings as desired. We all have different tastes: black olives, onions, yellow squash...
10. Stone is preheated on lowest oven rack. I heat to 500. Your stone may say 450 max temp.
11. Butting cookie sheet up to edge of stone, carefully slide parchment/pizza completely onto the stone. Watch your fingers!
12. After 6-7 minutes, butt cookie sheet ("pizza peel") back against front edge of stone. Slide parchment by front edge onto cookie sheet to remove from oven.
13. Hold parchment with your finger or thumbs and slide pizza off the parchment into a pizza box or onto clean newspaper (to absorb moisture).
14. Pizza should slide right off the parchment. Toss the paper - no mess!
15. Mmmm mmm! The finished pizza!
16. Pizza made on a rectangular stone. Notice the four separate topping quadrants.
For recipes and more instructions, see pages 28-30 of Everyday Cooking.
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