This is the kind of evening that makes me happy but keeps me from being skinny. And if nothing else, I know that in a skinny vs. happy smackdown, skinny has no chance. Happiness is a more powerful force. In fact, I can think of a few people who have traded away happy for the satisfaction that comes with being skinny, and I don’t envy them at all.
I did stick to my meal plan; homemade pizza, which sounds pretty laborious, but comes together in a snap when you plan ahead. I usually have a ball of dough, a sauce, and mozzarella cheese on reserve in the freezer, and then I just take them out the night before.
So while I was at Tinto sipping a few glasses of Spanish red with a couple of ladies whose company I really enjoy, Dan was here, rolling out the pizza dough, shredding the cheese and chopping the onions and peppers for toppings.
What has made this batch of dough particularly delicious is that I cut way back on the amount of flour I typically use. The dough is almost unmanageably sticky, but the end result is lighter, airier, and more pizzeria-like than what I’ve made in the past. Please forgive me for not calculating the calories. I just had three glasses of Spanish red.
Here’s the recipe:
New Annoyingly Sticky Yet More Delicious Pizza Dough
1 1/2 cup hot water (as hot as comes out of my tap)
1 teaspoon honey
2 packets regular (not quick acting) yeast
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/4 cups white flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
You may be able to do this without, but I use a Kitchenaid stand mixer with its dough hook. Rinse the bowl of the mixer with hot water. Add the water, honey, and yeast. Let it sit for about 10 minutes; it will become frothy.
Add the whole wheat flour and mix on low speed until combined.
Add the white flour, salt, and olive oil. Mix until a ball had formed. It will not clear the sides of the bowl. It will stick like crazy to the hook and everything else, including your hands. Just make the best of it, and remove it from the bowl by any means necessary. Coat the bowl with olive oil and turn the dough ball around in the oil so it’s slick.
Let rise for an hour. Do NOT punch it down.
Preheat the oven to 500 degrees, with a pizza stone if you have one.
Divide the dough into two equal pieces. Wrap one tightly in plastic wrap, put it in a zip-top bag, and stash it in the freezer a weeknight meal later down the line.
Take the dough you’re cooking now and roll it into a ball on a well-floured work surface, and use a rolling pin to shape into a 1/4-inch thick 12-diameter disk. Top with sauce, cheese and whatever else you like on your pizza.
Bake it on the pizza stone or a sheet pan for 8 to 15 minutes, removing when the crust begins to brown and the cheese has turned golden brown. Pizza, like anything with melty cheese, is better if you let it sit a few minutes before slicing it up and devouring it. This pizza, like almost everything I make, has three servings: Joy and Dan for dinner and Dan’s lunch the next day.
