Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Fail-Proof Pizza Dough and Cheesy Garlic Bread Sticks

Boy do I have a recipe for you!  I know I have mentioned my love affair with carbs before and over the past 4 months or so I have been on a fresh yeast bread kick.  So while browsing my favorite blogs a few weeks ago I came across a really great and easy sounding recipe for fail-proof pizza dough and cheesy garlic bread sticks here at Lauren's Latest blog.  You need to try this recipe today!

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Here's what you need:

Basic Fail-Proof Pizza Dough
recipe adapted from Lauren's latest

Yield - 2 - 12 inch pizzas, approximately 1 pound of dough

1 cup warm water, between 105 - 115 degrees
2-1/4 tsp. active dry yeast (1 packet)
1 Tbl. sugar (or honey- I used sugar)
2 tsp. salt
2 Tbl. olive or canola oil
3 cups flour ( I used unbleached all purpose) give or take 1/2 cups depending on the humidity and heat.

In the bowl of a stand mixer stir the yeast and sugar into the warm water.  Let stand 5 minutes until bubbly.  This shows that the yeast is active.
 
Pour in 1/2 the flour, salt, and oil.  Mix until the flour is incorporated.  Start adding the rest of the flour in 1/2 cup increments until the dough is slightly tacky but not sticking to the bowl or your hands.  I usually add up to 3-1/2 cups total for this recipe.
Turn the mixer to med-high and knead the dough for 6 minutes.  Don't stop the mixer early.  The dough needs the whole 6 minutes to knead.
When done kneading the dough should be smooth and easy to work with.  Place a Tablespoon or so of oil a clean bowl and place the dough in the bowl, turning it once to oil the dough ball completely.  Cover with plastic wrap and a dry towel and place in a warm draft free area to raise for 1 - 2 hours or until doubled in size.  
Now you can turn the dough into anything you would like to.  Pizza, Bread sticks, Etc...

Cheesy Bread Sticks

Here's what you need:
1 recipe fail proof pizza dough - Printable
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, softened
2- 3 garlic cloves grated (I use a microplane, but a garlic press would be fine too)
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Optional - 1/2 cup cheddar or cheddar jack would be great too.

Preheat oven to 500 degrees.  (you can preheat a pizza stone inside also but I find it hard to get the pizza onto the stone if it's already hot)
Mix the butter and garlic in a small bowl and set aside.
Roll out pizza dough on a piece of parchment paper to desired size.  I used a 1/2 sheet pan, so I rolled my dough to fit.  You can always use half the dough and cut the butter mixture in half too.  I am usually feeding a crowd so I make the whole recipe.  I use a metal sheet pan so I drizzle olive oil in the pan and brush it to cover the whole pan so that the bottom gets nice and browned.  
 
Place pizza dough into the greased pan and spread with the butter mixture. 
 
Sprinkle the cheese's on top and bake for 10 minutes or until golden and bubbly.
 
Transfer to cutting board and slice into strips or squares.  Serve immediately.
 


Here's the handy printable - Fail-Proof Pizza Dough
Here's the handy printable - Cheesy Garlic Bread Sticks
recipes adapted from:  Lauren's Latest at www.laurenslatest.com

Enjoy!
~Hugs~
Michelle




2 comments:

  1. Yummy! I made this dough today. I did have to substitute 1 cup of bread flour because I didn't have enough A.P. flour. Everything else I followed the recipe. Thanks for posting.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. So glad you tried it! It's definitely one of our favorites :)

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