Pizza with the Super Peel

Making homemade pizza is a lot of fun.  If you haven't ever tried it, you should!

First you make the dough, knead it, let it rise, punch it down and roll it out.  Here is what I put in this crust:

• 2 cups of all-purpose flour
• 2/3 cup very warm water
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp active dry yeast
• herbs and black pepper to taste

I got that recipe here and the author, S. John Ross, also provides step-by-step instructions to get it to the step shown in the next picture.  So why don't you pay Gourmand Bleu a visit and then come back when you are ready to roll.

Roll out the dough on something it won't stick to, like parchment paper.  Grab some pizza sauce, or if you are feeling fancy, make some yourself.  I was not feeling fancy.

Spread the sauce on the dough and assemble your toppings.

Add your toppings to your pizza.  Try not to drool.

As you can see, one half of this pizza has no cheese.  That half is for me, because I have a dairy allergy.  My husband, on the other hand, has cheese on his half.

Now here is something I am pretty excited about.  My parents got me a Super Peel to move dough around easily, and this is my first time trying it out.

So, you move the wooden peel under the dough, and the pastry cloth acts as a conveyor belt.  It is pretty slick.

All loaded up and ready for the oven!

Pizza is moved onto the preheated pizza stone, without dropping toppings everywhere or becoming horribly disfigured.  Success!

I do think I need more practice, to make it a smother process.  If you watch the videos on the link it works really easily.  Oh, and maybe I should clean my pizza stone, too.

Here is the finished pizza.  I put it on the pan after it came out of the oven.  Remember, it was baked directly on the pizza stone, and we didn't use cornmeal or anything to make it behave.

Ready to serve?

One final addition.  Tomatoes!

Served up for a tasty lunch.  Yum!

Enjoy!