This post at Hot Air got me thinking pizza.  I gave up on Domino’s back in ‘92, and haven’t really been all that fond of anyone else’s pizza since Godfathers died out in the area.   I guess I might try the new Dominos recipe to see if it has gone from execrable to edible, but I may be a bit spoiled by:

Brian’s Bread Machine Folded-edge Pizza:

In bread machine add the following in order:

1/2 cup warm water 1/2 cup milk 1/8 cup butter or margarine (Use BUTTER!!! Die like a man!)

1 lightly beaten (break yolk and mix a little)egg

2 tbs sugar

1 ts salt

1/2 clove finely minced garlic (save the other half. 1 ts oregano

Mix these ingredients together before adding:

3 cups BREAD flour (All-purpose flour = NO purpose flour)

2 ts fast action (Fleichmann’s RapidRise or equivalent) yeast

Set bread machine for the dough or roll (no bake) setting and start.

I’m not giving up my sauce recipe, but here’s a basic starter kit:

I can tomato paste,

1/2 small can tomato sauce

Oregano

1 clove garlic (I LOVE garlic, YMMV so experiment)

basil

sage (a VERY small pinch)

tyme (also small)

salt

1 tbs dried Parmesan cheese

Mix thoroughly and place in microwave for 1 minute. Mix again, cover and place in refrigerator until you need it.

You can, if you don’t want to experiment, buy ready-made sauce at the store, but that’s for wimps.

Take that 1/2 clove of garlic left over from the dough, mince it to death and mix with 1/3 cup softened butter and 1/2 ts salt. this mixture should be at room temperature when it’s time to serve the pizza.

When bread machine beeps, preheat your oven to 450F. Place dough on a large, FLOURED countertop. Sprinkle flour on top of dough and roll out to fit a 16 inch pizza pan. line pan with baking parchment.

Parchment: If you don’t bake with parchment, you are an IDIOT!. Go out to the store and get some right now.

If you’re still reading this, I’ll assume you are not an idiot.

Fold dough down once, then over to make a wedge shape.  Transfer to pan.    Unfold and, if necessary, stretch over edge of pizza pan.    Dough should go over the edge of your pan by about an inch.

Here’s the folded-edge part:

Spread sauce over bottom of pizza. lightly covering the edges.

sprinkle fine shredded mozzarella cheese just inside the edge, then fold the edge over until it is even with the pan.

I  find that it helps to sprinkle a light amount of cheese over the sauce (not enough to cover the sauce, just a little bit will do) before adding toppings.

Add toppings

Cover toppings with mozzarella.

Bake pizza at 450F for approx 12-18 minutes or until crust is golden brown and cheese is completely melted.

Remove from oven and immediately brush garlic butter over edges of crust.

Slide parchment and pizza on counter.   If counter is plastic or some other melt-when hot or easily damaged surface, lay out a few sheets of newspaper before sliding the parchment and pizza on it.

Slice and serve.

Pointers:

Pizza Stones:   Not good for this recipe.   Use a metal pan lined with parchment.

Cutters:    Get a real, sharp-edged pizza cutter.   If you spent less that $15 retail on it, it is probably çráp.   If you have a good cutter, you will probably be able to slice right throught the pizza without cutting through the parchment.  If you do not have a cutter, use an 8″ chef’s knife.   Press knife down through picca with the tip at the center.   Do not saw or pull, just press down through pizza and rock knife edge so that the entire edge has gone through to the parchment, then lift knife straight up and do the same thing at the opposite side. repeat until you have the number of slices you want.