Herbed Cheese Pizza: Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes

Today in the bread-baking blog, we're continuing our pizza making series. We're making a delicious Herbed Cheese Pizza using the olive oil dough from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes.

There is a picture of a delicious herbed pizza on the front cover of the September issue of Cooking Light. I've been wanting to make this pizza for a few weeks. I decided to make it using the olive oil dough from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes rather than making the dough from the recipe. I also made homemade pizza sauce using one of my favorite recipes and incorporated some of the additional ingredients from the herbed pizza recipe. I really like the combination. Hopefully, you will too.

Here are some helpful tips and resources for making homemade pizza:

• Choose a recipe from our collection of homemade pizza recipes.
• Check out the pizza ingredients section for some special products to make your pizza taste even better.
• Browse the homemade pizza section for pizza peels, pizza stones, and other pizza pans and tools.
• Check out our selection of pizza cookbooks.
• View our selection of pizza mixes.
• Refer to the tips in the how to make pizza section.
• For more recipes and instructions, don't forget to check out the September 2008 series on making pizza in the bread baking blog.

Herbed Cheese Pizza using Olive Oil Dough

Makes: Four pizzas

I made 2 pizzas and saved the rest of the dough for later

If you would like to bake along with us, turn to page 80 in Artisan Bread in Five Minutes to locate the recipe and list of ingredients.

Making the Pizza Dough

Mix the yeast, salt, sugar, and olive oil with the water in a large bowl, or a lidded (not airtight) 5-quart food container.

Mix in the flour without kneading, using a spoon, or your mixer or food processor if you prefer.

I started out using a big wooden spoon then switched to the Danish dough whisk to make sure all of the ingredients were incorporated thoroughly. If you want to do this by hand, you can use wet hands to incorporate the remaining flour.

The dough comes together very easily using the danish dough whisk.

Cover the dough and allow it to rest at room temperature until it rises and collapses, approximately 2 hours.

This is the dough after sitting on the counter for 2 hours.

Now it's time to refrigerate the dough overnight in a lidded container and use it over the next 12 days (or sooner). The dough can be used immediately but it is easier to work with when cold. I decided to let mine rest in the refrigerator overnight and throughout the next day so I could make pizza the following night.

Preparing the Pizza Sauce and Toppings

Here is the recipe I used for the pizza sauce. It's a combination of a couple of different pizza sauce recipes. This makes a big batch so I froze the rest for next time. I made the sauce Sunday afternoon so we could have pizza for dinner Sunday night.

Pizza Sauce

1 teaspoon olive oil

1 cup finely chopped onion

5 garlic cloves, minced

1/4 cup white wine (I used some white wine that my friend made)

2 tablespoons tomato paste

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

1 bay leaf

1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes, undrained. I used fresh tomatoes that another friend of mine gave me. Just peeled them and chopped them up. I had about 32 ounces. Yummy!

1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil (I have fresh basil but used dried instead)

1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar (I used a little more because I like the flavor.)

Heat a skillet over medium-high heat. Add 1 teaspoon olive oil to pan. Add onion; saute 3 minutes or until tender. Add garlic to pan; saute 30 seconds. Stir in wine; cook 30 seconds. Add tomato paste, oregano, black pepper, salt, crushed red pepper flakes, bay leaf and tomatoes and bring to a boil.

Reduce heat, and simmer for 15 minutes or until thick. Then stir in basil and vinegar and cool. It took about 30 minutes for my sauce to thicken. It also cooked down a good bit.

This makes a chunky sauce so if you prefer a smooth sauce, you can puree it in the blender. I like it either way but my taste tester preferred the sauce smooth so I pureed it and it tasted great.

Herb Topping

2 teaspoons dried oregano

2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 teaspoon hot paprika

1/2 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper

To prepare the topping, combine oregano, cumin, paprika, and 1/2 teaspoon black pepper in a small bowl. Set this aside.

Now it's time to make the pizza...

Twenty minutes before baking time, preheat the oven with a baking stone at 450 degrees F.

Get the dough out of the refrigerator. Dust the surface of the refrigerated dough with flour and cut off a 1-pound piece.

Dust the piece with more flour and quickly shape into a ball. My dough was really wet so I shaped it on the counter (rather than in my hands) incorporating more flour as I went along.

Flatten the dough with your hands (or a rolling pin if you prefer) to a 1/8-thick round. You may need to use a dough scraper to unstick the dough and keep from adding too much flour.

You may also need to let the partially rolled dough sit for a few minutes to "relax" to allow further shaping.

Place the dough on a piece of parchment or you can use a cornmeal-covered pizza peel. I find that the dough sticks to the peel too much with just cornmeal so I like to use parchment paper on top of the peel.

Slide the pizza (on the parchment paper) onto the stone

and parbake for a few minutes.

This keeps the toppings from making the pizza soggy.

Now, top the pizza with some sauce;

Add some of the herb mixture;

Then top with slices of your choice of cheese. The recipe suggested kasseri cheese but I couldn't find it so I just used sliced mozzarella.

Slide the pizza onto the baking stone and bake it for 8 to 10 minutes, then check for doneness.

Rotate the pizza if it is browning too much on one side. Then bake for another 5 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly.

Remove the pizza from the oven and allow it to cool slightly before serving. This will give the cheese time to set. I slid mine onto a bread board to let it cool for a few minutes.

Now it's time to enjoy this delicious pizza! It has a wonderful spicy and herb flavor. I think this combination would taste really good with pepperoni but my taste tester is vegetarian so I didn't use any meat. Evenso, it was yummy!

Thanks for visiting The Bread Experience Bread-Baking Blog. We hope you'll join us next time when we make a different type of pizza.

You might enjoy some of these other Homemade Pizza Recipes

Happy Baking!

--Cathy

Here are some additional bread-making resources:

• Bread Recipes
• Bread Cookbooks
  
• Bread Making
  
• Baking Supplies
  
• Bread Flour
  
• Bread Mixes

You might enjoy some of the other breads that have been featured in the bread making blog. Click on the links below to view the different types of breads:

2009 Bread Making Series

• August 2009: Artisan Breads
• July 2009: No Knead Breads
• June 2009: Steamed Breads
• May 2009: Baking Breads in Pots
• April 2009: Easter and Other Breads
• March 2009: Soda Breads
• February 2009: Breakfast Breads
• January 2009: Whole Wheat Breads

2008 Bread Making Series

• December 2008: Holiday Breads
• November 2008: Festive Breads
• October 2008: Bread Machine Bread
• September 2008: Making Pizza
• August 2008: Making No Knead Breads
• July 2008: Using Bread Starters to Make Bread