Not Quite a Success Story


Spurred on by Rosie Hawthorne's glowing accounts of making homemade pizza, I decided it was time to overcome my fear of yeast doughs. Years ago, when I was still a newlywed, I tried to make bread, only to create heavy, dense door stops. After a few disastrous attempts at baking up light, fluffy breads, I gave it up as a lost cause.

So you can imagine my delight when bread machines came out on the market. Finally, even I could successfully make fresh bread at home.

Now, back to the matter at hand. Knowing that I would need a concrete recipe to ease me into the process, I found a seemingly fool-proof recipe from Williams-Sonoma. Williams-Sonoma, meet a fool.

I have warm water, olive oil, all-purpose flour, yeast and salt standing by.

The first step is to let the yeast bloom. Per Rosie Hawthorne's instructions, I add a sprinkling of sugar so the yeast can feed.

Following the instructions, I mix the dry ingredients before adding the water and yeast.



Mix together with a fork.




I believe this is called a shaggy dough.




Turn out onto a floured board and knead for ten minutes.

The texture of the dough has changed drastically after kneading. Now it is smooth and quite elastic.

Place in an oiled bowl and cover.

Once again, I follow Rosie's advice and heat a wet towel in the microwave before placing the covered bowl on the hot towel and closing the door.

The dough has roughly doubled in size.

It is fun to punch down the dough!

The recipe says to press the dough out into the desired shape.

Dear daughter loves stuffed crust pizza, so thin slices of mozzarella line the edge.

Fold the edges over the cheese.

I bake the crust for a few minutes at 425 degrees.

I'm still listening to Rosie here. I nuke the pepperoni briefly in the microwave to get rid of excess grease.

Well, I've gone to all the trouble to make my own pizza dough, so I might as well make my own pizza sauce too.

Here I have tomato paste, dried oregano, black pepper, salt, tomato sauce, garlic, minced onion and sugar.

Add the onion, minced garlic and a drizzle of olive oil to a microwave safe bowl. Heat for 30 seconds on high. Now add the tomato sauce and tomato paste. Mix well before adding in oregano, sugar, salt and black pepper to taste.

Keep tasting and adjusting seasonings until you are happy with the sauce.

The remaining sauce goes into plastic containers and is frozen for later use.

Spread the sauce on the partially baked crust.

My husband likes mushrooms on his pizza, so I slice a Crimini mushroom and place it on a section of the pizza. Diced onion covers the rest of the pizza.

I grate enough mozzarella cheese to cover the pizza.

Looks good so far.

And now the pepperoni goes on. The lone mushroom slice is to mark the section with mushrooms.

Bake until the cheese is hot and bubbly.

And the verdict? Sigh, the pizza was tasty but the crust was just a bit too tough for our liking. Not quite sure where I went wrong, but I will keep trying. I will be victorious.