Homemade Pizza

Tonight, I wanted to use up some mozzarella cheese and some basil from the last recipe I made (keeping with my goal of budgeting).  I had also recently watched the Barefoot Contessa's episode on pizza making, so I was very excited to make some changes to the pizza recipe I usually use.

New Recipe:

Prep Time:
10-15 minutes

Total Time:
30 minutes

Ingredients:

1 cup warm water
1 packet yeast
2.5 cups flour
3 teaspoons honey
3 tablespoons olive oil (simmered with 3 roughly chopped garlic cloves and red pepper flakes on low heat while dough prepares)
Cornmeal
Mozzarella cheese

1.  Preheat oven to 500 degrees.
2.  Add warm water to a large bowl.  Add the yeast packet, stirring until it dissolves.
3.  Add the flour, honey, and olive oil.  Stir, then use your hands to bring together.
4.  For 10-15 minutes, allow dough to rest.
5.  Sprinkle the cornmeal onto either pizza stone, baking sheet, or upside down cast iron skillet.  Press the dough on this, and then drizzle or brush the warm olive oil (leaving out the cloves of garlic) on top of dough.  Add mozzarella cheese and any other toppings you would like.
6.  Bake at 500 degrees for about 11 minutes, checking around 10 minutes to see if it is ready.


This was very good, but although I was so excited to make the garlic and red pepper olive oil, I felt that this could have had a little more heat to contrast with the cheese and the relative sweetness of the dough.  I did add red pepper flakes on top as well, but I would possibly add a chili pepper or another source of heat next time to the olive oil.

Here it is with the basil on top:

Can't beat homemade pizza on a cold, windy night!