How To Make Pizza

Ingredients:

This is going to be the best pizza you've ever made.

You will need:

Olive Oil
Flour
Mozzarella cheese
Dry Active Yeast, one or two packets
Tomatoes, diced or whole is fine.

Step 1:

First, we need to make the dough - this is the most critical step.

Drop one or two packets of yeast into a bowl. I use two, but you can get away with one. I find that the extra yeast sometimes helps
the dough rise a bit more if I end up making too little. But one works.

You should now have this:

Step 2:

At this point, you want to add about 3/4 of a cup of LUKEWARM water. It should not be hot, it should not be cold. If its hot, you'll end up
cooking the yeast before its ready, and if its cold, the yeast wont rise well.

Mix the yeast until it dissolves in the water - this should take ten seconds or so.

You now have this:

Step 3:

Now, we add flour.

Step 4:

Grab a nice big handful of flour and dump it in.

Step 5:

You'll have a gooky mess at this point - it will stick to your fingers, get as much of the mess out of the the bowl and onto a clean dry surface. Don't wash off your hands at this point (hopefully you did that before you started) - you have a lot of flour and yeast stuck to them and you dont want to waste it.

And now you've got this:

Step 6:

Now, comes the hard part -

Keep adding a little bit of flour (were talking pinches of it) and kneading the ball again and again, always adding a little bit more flower. You'll see the ball absorbs the flower easily and gets a bit bigger as you add more.

If the ball is sticky wet and sticks to your hands - its too wet.
If the ball sticks to the counter - its too wet.

How do you know you've added enough?

When you can make a nice fist sized ball that isn't sticky and - this is the best way to tell - is a little elastic. That is, when you push down on it and release it (ever so slightly, this isn't a slinky) comes back to its original shape. The "spring back" is really minimal - you have to watch for it, but this is another good indication it's done. A third way to check is to taste a tiny piece. It should have the consistency of chewing gum in your mouth.

Most important though - you don't want a big wet sopping ball that is sticky.

This kneading process takes roughly 10-20 minutes.

Once you've completed this process you will have this:

Step 7:

Now, take a bowl and line the bottom with just a little flour.

Place the ball in the bowl and cut a little flower into it with a knife.

Step 8:

Now cover the ball with just a little flour... just a light coat

Now cover the bowl with someting (another bowl, a plate, anything that can create a decent seal). Put it to the side for a good hour.

In the mean time....

Step 9:

Get your tomatoes.

You'll notice they are really soggy and wet. And what have we learned about soggy wet stuff and pizza? Thats right! It doesnt mix. So you want to squeeze out as much of the water from the tomato as possible or else you'll end up with a puddle of water on your pizza as they cook.

Step 10:

Water removed:

Typically, I end up using 3 large cans per pizza.

Step 11:

Now, put that aside and go grab a tray and line the bottom with a little olive oil, just enough to coat the bottom ever so slightly.

Step 12:

Once the pizza dough has been sitting for AT LEAST AN HOUR, go grab it

You'll see the ball is now bigger and opened up.

Step 13:

Take the ball and knead it out, either with a roller or by hand into the tray. I like to do mine by hand.

Go turn on the oven to 400 degrees.

Step 14:

Next, place the tomatoes on the pizza and use a paper towel to soak up any remaining water.

Step 15:

Sprinkle a little olive oil on top, depending on how much you like olive oil.

Step 16:

Now place it in the oven and cook it for about 20 minutes until the edges are golden brown.

You'll notice I havent mentioned the mozzarella yet. DONT put that on until the end or you will just burn it. Whethr you are using shredded or not, put it on once the pizza is done (once you are sure the edges are crisp and golden - you can test with a knife) and leave it in there for a few minutes to melt.

Serve hot.

Sorry there is no picture of the whole pizza, my friends ate it soon as it came out of the oven.