Pizza Crust Recipe Archives - Kimbesa's Homemade Pizza

Best Flour To Use For Homemade Pizza Crust

Posted on September 12, 2010September 19, 2017 by kimbesa

I love bread flour for pizza crust. Guess we’re fortunate at our house, because no gluten allergies here. (I am exploring gluten free pizza crusts, for future use. Why should an allergy get in the way when you love pizza?)

Got some bread flour from Hampshire Farms at the Royal Oak Farmers Market.

This is a whole grain bread flour, milled locally from local wheat. One of the photos shows a comparison, regular bread flour to this flour.

I found that ¼ cup, up to not more than ½ cup of this flour in my usual pizza crust recipe worked well to give the crust some more “tooth” which makes the pizza even more satisfying in this cooler weather. My recipe for pizza crust is on this page.

The corner pieces are almost like a slice of pizza with a bread stick on the side. Something crunchy to munch. I could see making this crust into a batch of bread sticks and using the pizza sauce to dip. Could be a good game-day buffet item. Just keep the sauce warm in a small crock pot or chafing dish.

In the quest for a great pizza crust, the importance of having a hot, pre-heated oven comes up over and over. Give your oven 10 or 15 minutes to heat up, so that the pizza goes in to a fully hot oven. As for temperature, it’s 500 degrees in my case. That’s as hot as my ordinary home oven goes.

As I write, I’ve got another batch of dough for pizza crust rising in the kitchen. I can already smell the yeasty goodness. Ultimately this will be a sausage pizza, of course. Another tasty pizza coming up soon, crust and all!

Homemade Pizza Crust in a Jiffy

Posted on July 1, 2010October 11, 2010 by kimbesa

Making your pizza crust at home from a boxed mix is not exactly what I consider home made. It’s not “from scratch” but not too far off.

Jiffy pizza crust mix I decided to test the Jiffy Pizza Crust boxed mix that is available in many grocery stores.

Jiffy is a Michigan company and they make a variety of these convenience mixes. We always had their cornbread mix at home.

Jiffy Crust Benefits

Convenience. One box makes a crust about 10 by 14 inches, or a number of smaller crusts. You could take this camping if you want pizza, just bring some flour for kneading, along with the sauce and other ingredients you will need
Rises quickly due to a combination of yeast and baking soda
Easy to make. You just need water and some extra flour to briefly knead the dough

The other side

Fluffier texture than I generally like due to the combination of yeast and baking soda. My homemade pizza crust recipe has only yeast as the leavening agent
With only a little more time, I can make a crust from scratch using my own choice of flour

The Jiffy mix calls for prebaking the crust at 425 degrees. In my 30+ years of making pizza at home, I have never prebaked a crust. I consider it unnecessary.

Why bake before topping the pizza? I think the advocates of this method believe that it makes the crust crispier and/or keeps it becoming soggy due to the sauce and other ingredients.

I did not prebake my test crust, added my normal ingredients, and baked the pizza at 500 degrees. It came out fine.

Your pizza crust will be crisp if you use a good quality pizza sauce (no corn syrup or other fillers) that is thick, and bake it a hot, preheated oven.

Tips for a crisp pizza crust

Knead your crust until it has a dull sheen and won’t take in any more flour. It won’t stick easily to your hands, but is not so full of flour that the crust doesn’t hang together as a smooth ball. Better to use less flour at first, then add more a little at a time, vs. adding too much too early.
Use good quality bread flour
Stretch the crust out so that is relatively thin
Preheat the oven to 500 degrees
Assemble the pizza right before baking

I have more of the Jiffy crust mix, and I will use it when I want convenience. I’ll knead it according to the directions, adding my own flour.

Celebrate March Madness with Homemade Pizza

Posted on March 31, 2010October 11, 2010 by kimbesa

DeliciousHomemadePizza

Pizza and basketball. What a great combination!

The coming game between MSU and Butler is all over the news here, as I’m in Michigan. It probably will be exciting. Teams which make the Final Four have to be good.

Having a game-watching party with family and friends this weekend? Make it a pizza night!

Here’s how you can have your pizza and see the game, too. Continue reading “Celebrate March Madness with Homemade Pizza” →