- [John] Today I'll be showing you how to make some pizzas
from scratch!
This is one of my favorite childhood memories,
because every week we would have a family pizza night
and kind of assemble them all ourselves,
but my mom would have made the dough ahead of time
because we were children, and couldn't be trusted.
But I trust you, so let's get started!
To make the pizza dough,
I'm starting off with one and a half cups
of 110 to 115-degree water, with two packets of yeast added.
This is dry yeast,
so when it comes in to contact with that warm water,
it'll kind of wake up and get happy.
But if it's too hot, you'll kill them all.
And if it's too cold, nothing will happen.
So, warm water in to a warm bowl.
Give it a little swirl to get started.
And I'm actually gonna add in half a teaspoon
of granulated sugar, just to get them started,
like a little bit a of a breakfast for them.
Okay, give that a stir.
And, it should take about seven minutes-ish.
You'll see foaming or bubbling,
which means they're waking up and getting happy.
I warmed my metal bowl up
because nobody wants to sit in a cold metal bowl,
especially these yeast.
Add it in to your standing mixer.
And, now you can see that my yeast are all frothed up
and a little bulbous.
I'm adding that in to my warmed bowl.
Adding the remainder of the sugar,
which was two tablespoons minus the half teaspoon.
You can do the math.
Half a teaspoon of salt.
I'm gonna take in a handful of dried rosemary,
just crush it with my fingers.
A quarter cup of olive oil.
I'll give this a quick mix.
(mixing)
And now it's time to add in four cups of all-purpose flour.
Oh, my neatest flour pour ever.
We're gonna give this a good mix.
It needs to come together,
incorporate and form a dough ball.
Make sure you're using a dough hook for this.
We're gonna increase to level two.
Okay, so this has formed a nice ball around my dough hook.
Voila.
Smells great.
I love the smell of yeast.
I wish I could bake bread every day.
I'm gonna grease my bowl,
and I added a little bit of oil in to this bowl
and I'm just going to use a paper towel to whoosh it around.
The whole point of this is just so the dough doesn't stick
to the bowl, and it'll release easily.
Pour the olive oil and just kind of coat your dough.
This has to rest for an hour
and it'll double up in volume,
but you need to cover it so it doesn't dry out.
Normally I use plastic wrap,
but I'm trying to be a bit more eco-friendly,
so I bought these little bonnets that go on your bowl,
and that'll work just fine.
It's been just over an hour, and this has doubled in size.
So, take a look.
Remove that bonnet!
Big, it actually was bigger,
but I touched it like this and it poof,
like a souffle, it deflated.
All right, so now we're going to punch this down.
That's the fun part.
All right, and then we're going to remove it from the bowl.
Which, almost looks like I should've greased it a bit more.
I was kind of stingy.
All right, we're gonna use a well-floured surface
and knead this.
Okay.
You know you're done kneading
when you have a bit of spring coming back,
so if it's in a ball, you tap it, it'll spring back.
Don't take your anger out of the dough ball.
It didn't do anything to you.
But just gently knead it, like you're giving it a massage.
When you're kneading, you're activating the proteins,
or gluten, in the flour,
and it's just changing the structure
in to something more breadey.
Which is what you want, as opposed to something cakey,
like you would have in a cake batter
that you just mix until combined.
I'm using these super sweet cherry tomatoes
and just giving them a little halve
so that they don't burst in your mouth,
cause they'll become really hot in the oven.
If you're using larger tomatoes,
just slice them in to quarter-inch thick slices.
Cut the fresh mozzarella in to a quarter-inch thick discs
and set them aside.
Now I'm using my bench scraper to divide my dough
in to four even-ish pieces.
Put the three pieces that you're not using aside,
and cover them in a damp paper towel
so they don't dry out.
Now start carefully stretching your dough in to a circle.
It doesn't have to be perfect.
It's a rustic pizza, so just thin it out.
Make sure to keep moving the dough around,
and you can also feel free to re-flour the surface.
You don't want it to stick.
If you have your special pizza-making gear,
use that, but I lost mine in the last move,
so I'm using parchment paper on a baking sheet
so I have easy transfers.
You'll be repeating this process
for the other pizzas, just FYI.
Use the back of a spoon to spread sauce on to the pizza.
You want to be liberal, but not have a pool of sauce,
because then the pizza won't crisp up.
Place the mozzarella slices evenly
all over the pizza.
Same goes for those beautiful tomatoes.
I'm giving mine a liberal sprinkling of sea salt.
Now it's going to go in to the oven at 450 Fahrenheit
for fifteen to twenty minutes,
or until that crust is golden brown and it looks delicious.
After the pizza's out of the oven,
give it a few seconds to cool down
and then sprinkle it with some fresh basil.
Now it's time for the potato pizza.
I'm starting off by slicing these little baby potatoes
pretty thinly, and I'm separating them
in to the white potatoes and the purple potatoes.
I'm gonna parboil them, which means just boiling them
for a couple minutes to tender them up before baking.
Boil the white potatoes first
and then do the same for the purple potatoes.
I'm not boiling them together
because they would all turn out blueish.
You want to maintain a separation,
so the white stays white and dark stay dark.
It's like doing the laundry.
After you've prepared your pizza dough,
it's time to spread some pesto on this time.
If you really wanna do a red pizza, go ahead.
You could also do a white pizza
with some olive oil that you flavored with garlic.
Mm, delicious.
For this pizza, I am using shredded mozzarella
because I want those potatoes
to maintain the pattern I'm gonna use.
And now it's time to arrange our potatoes.
I'm doing stripes of white and purple,
and hoping that it looks intentional,
as opposed to a mess.
After your potatoes are arranged,
you're going to give them a light brush with olive oil,
a little sprinkle of sea salt
and then pop them in to the oven at 450 again
for fifteen to twenty minutes,
or until that crust is golden.
And you'll see the potatoes are nice and tender.
Now, for the fig pizza.
I'm so excited, because figs are in season,
and they're delicious.
Remove the stem with a knife, and slice them in half.
Repeat the same process with shaping your dough,
again, on the parchment paper.
And this time, you're going to brush it with some olive oil.
Now I'm sprinkling on some freshly-shaved parmesan.
So delicious, really strong in flavor,
but it's gonna compliment those sweet, sweet figs.
Cover that pizza completely with those figs,
cut side up.
In to the oven once again, at 450
for fifteen to twenty minutes.
This is totally optional,
but I'm making a balsamic glaze.
All this is, is a nice balsamic vinegar,
you could use a little bit of honey or sugar
if you want to sweeten it up,
and you're just heating it to thicken it up.
Drizzle the balsamic all over that pizza
and give it a cut.
Now it's time to eat.
I know what you're gonna ask me.
Which one is your favorite?
So hard to choose, of course, but here it is.
(laughs)
Okay, this fig guy, I really loved.
These figs were perfectly ripe,
and I used a beautiful, really nice aged balsamic,
and reduced it just a bit.
Came out really well, and I enjoyed nibbling on it.
I kind of feel it's almost a side dish, though.
You want to have this with something else,
maybe a salad, to help balance it out.
Okay.
The pizza, pesto potato situation, this was really good.
I have fond memories of this pesto potato pizza
at a local pizzeria in my neighborhood.
And, mine was pretty good, but they have some magic in it,
in that there's a pound of olive oil,
it's the greasiest pizza in the world
but it's still delicious.
Less greasy, I really enjoyed it.
The potatoes are so creamy, it's a nice addition.
I might even recommend having a larger, thicker potato,
and just tossing it on for that rustic extra potato action.
(gasps)
This is my favorite. (laughs)
Fresh mozzarella, a nice tomato sauce,
and some beautiful little golden cherry tomatoes,
with some fresh basil.
What else could go wrong on this?
Nothing, it's delicious.
Anyways, thanks so much for watching.
Oh!
Should I take another bite?
A bite for you? Okay.
Mm.
It's so good, that basil.
Thanks so much for watching, hit that like button
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