Wine and Honey Pizza Dough
When I see “dry active yeast” in a recipe, a number of things occur:
I make a sour face
I look for another recipe
I think about the free clinic
Unfortunately, I don’t think there’s another way to make pizza crust from scratch. I’ve already mastered the arts of chopping, grating and spreading with a spoon in a circular motion. But to be able to make an entire pizza from the ground up, especially considering how much pizza I’ve consumed in my life, seemed like a talent I should have acquired years ago.
So off I toddled to my Rock and Roll Ralphs for dry active yeast. Once in the store, I had to ask the little mousy girl who hands out the circulars where to find it, and once in the appropriate aisle, had to wander back and forth the same way I do when I lose my car in the parking structure.
This was because, in my mind, dry active yeast comes in a giant vat the size of a paper towel roll and includes a little plastic scooper that you use to dump at least three to five heaping amounts into your bread mixture. Basically, I thought you used dry active yeast in a bread recipe the same way you use protein powder in a fruit smoothie.
Turns out a single packet of yeast comes in a small, non-threatening paper pack slightly larger than a tea bag.
Yeast is a “guy on the go” kind of item. I could pocket it with my gum and eye drops and always have it on hand should anyone at work suddenly need it. “Help, I’m lacking the required amount of carbon dioxide to make my pumpernickel rise! Does anyone have a leavener?” Bam – suddenly Gary’s a hero!
There are little to no attractive qualities to dry active yeast packaging… no pictures of glammed up serving suggestions, no funny cartoon mascot with a big smile daring you to NOT to purchase it. In fact, it actually does look like something you might walk out of the free clinic with and have to take in an 8 ounce glass of water three times a day until the condition is no longer visible to the eye.
My dough didn’t really rise much at all, and it turns out that everyone who told me making pizza crust from scratch is more trouble than it’s worth was right on the money. But it still cooked up great – flakey, sweet and delicious, just like me! I got the recipe from Smitten Kitchen.
6 tablespoons warm water (may need up to 1 or 2 tablespoons more water)
2 tablespoons white wine
3/4 teaspoon active dry yeast
1/2 teaspoon honey
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 1/2 cups flour
Cornmeal for sprinkling
Flour for dusting counter
Whisk wine, water and yeast in a medium bowl until yeast has dissolved. Add honey, salt and olive oil and stir. Add flour and no matter how dry it looks, work it with a spoon and your fingers until it comes together as a dough. Smitten’s recipe suggests that an additional tablespoon or two may be necessary. I went ahead and added one, not because I needed it, but because I was already doubting my ability to pull this off (the onset of “gay doughmaker panic disorder”)
Sprinkle some flour on the work area and knead the dough for a minute or two.
Coat a bowl with olive oil. Put the dough in, cover it with plastic wrap (my mom recommended a damp kitchen towel as another option), and let it rise for an hour or up to two, until it is doubled.
The Smitten recipe did not mention that a warm area might help rising along. I most definitely did not leave it in a warm place so that may have been why I didn’t get much of a rise out of my monster. Smitten advises you to dip two fingers into flour and then press them into the dough. If the impression stays, your dough is ready, but if it pops back out, it still needs some more time.
Once your dough is ready, turn it back out onto your flowered workspace and gently deflate the dough with the palm of your hands. Form it into a ball, sprinkle more flour over the top and let it rest with either plastic wrap over it or an upended bowl (mom again suggests a kitchen cloth).
Wait about fifteen minutes and then roll it out, but do it better than I did if you plan on taking a picture of it.
Preheat your oven to its highest temperature. Sprinkle your pizza stone or your pan with cornmeal (I don’t know what this does) and pile it up. I used fresh mozzarella, tomato sauce, sliced sausage, onions and fresh basil leaves.
I started checking on it after about 7 minutes, as the recipe instructed, and let it go 14 total before bringing it back out.
You will be happy after you make this recipe. You will want to put dry active yeast into everything. Resist that urge.
