Day One - Pizza

Happy New Year!  This is the first day of my year of cooking (and baking!) without using recipes.  It's 8 am and already I wonder if I'm going to make it until 9 am.  I want to make pizza dough for tonight, and while I remember the amount of 00 and all-purpose flours, I cannot for the life of me remember how much yeast I should put in.  I was supposed to memorize a few basic recipes last night, not stay up drinking champagne.   So this is the first test.  Luckily it's an easy one.  A good amount of salt, a bit of yeast, a bit of olive oil, enough water to get to the correct consistency, and voila, we will have pizza dough.  I sense my cooking confidence increasing already.

I determined I would write down what I do, so here goes:

Mix together

• 153 g 00 flour
• 153 g all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 t salt
• 1/4 t yeast

Add

• 200 g water
• 1 t olive oil

Make rough dough and knead in mixer for ten minutes or so.  Put in fridge for at least eight hours, or leave on counter for three to four.

Results?

Dough definitely didn't rise in the fridge as much as it has in the past, but maybe I put too much salt in and it retarded the yeast.  I don't think the original recipe calls for more yeast.  So I'll try cutting down on the salt next time.

We used our last method which was highly successful.  We cooked the crusts on the grill (both sides), then brought them inside, topped them off, and finished the under the broiler.  Super yummy.  However they tend to puff up like pita pockets on the grill, and even after I topped them one of them puffed up so much under the broiler that all the toppings slid off and stuck to the burner element (a mess!).  So I need to do a bit of research about what makes a pita a pita, etc....maybe when they're on the grill we slice them down the middle once they puff up.