Pie aye, aye.

A moment of reverence for the single greatest invention of all times past, present and future.

Homemade pizza can be a little daunting and a lot disappointing.
If you nail it, it is a reason to celebrate, if you botch even one of the constituent pieces, you may want to try one of those shooting spree things you've read so much about.

The most-often massacred pizza pie building block is certainly the crust/dough. Does your crust taste like raw dough? Too soggy? Not crispy, but more like a hard, flour-based cement (One bite and smasho...it's shattered). Don't load the gun yet.


It is simple to make dough. Do not let anything disuade you from that mindset. I have found that the divine ratio of pizza dough is 3 to 1. That is, 3 parts flour/grains to 1 part water/liquid. Last night I used ...


2 cups wheat flour,
3/4cups all-purpose flour, and
1 cup of spent grains (left over from a batch of beer that I brewed on Sunday.)
1 cup warm H20 to activate the yeast
1/4 cup skim milk (optional)
2 Tbsp honey (to dissolve in the warm H20 for the yeast)
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp salt
1 packet dry yeast

Combine the H20 and the yeast in a bowl, let the yeast proof for 10 min (it will be all foamy).
Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl(not yeast smarta$$e$), incorporate everything homogenously.
After proofing, add the olive oil and milk to the wet goods.
Incorporate the dry with the wet.
Stir firmly to develop a sticky doughball. JUST dry enough to handle. I like olive oil on my hands to help me.
Add dry as needed...you WILL need to add some dry stuff. Remember this poignant quote:

"The divine ratio of pizza dough is really more of a divine guideline or divine 'ballpark figure' than ratio."
-Me (2007)

Knead the glutinous mass until you can tuck it into a tight little lump.
Take the whole doughball and put it in an oiled up bowl with a towel on it for a few hours someplace warm. Let the dough at least double in size (more like 2.5X to 3X original size).
After the yeast has en-hugened the dough give it a quick working over to re-aquire the tucked up ball look.



You can cut in in half or quarters if you want more manageble pieces.
I cut the mass in half and then one of the halfs in half. Leaving one half and two quarter pieces.
I let the half rise some more in the same bowl it was in before.
One of the quarters I flatten (as thin as possible...really thin) into a pizza shape.
You can top the raw dough or you can precook the crust like I did last night.

What about that other quarter piece? Well...