Unfortunately, it takes more rising time than my other recipe, which is one reason why the post is so late. The other reason is because I didn't have any sides in the house that sounded good to me.
So my new recipe came from experimentation, but, like any good scientist, I documented carefully. A non-reproducible experiment is as bad as a non-productive one. So... here's my new recipe: Stir together 3 cups flour, 4 tsp yeast (or 2 packets) 1 1/2 tsp salt, and 1/4 c sugar. Melt 2 Tbsp margarine in 1 cup hot water (110 to 130 F degrees) and mix that in (the recipe also allows for 1 c heated milk instead of "butter water" but this recipe already called for twice the yeast and 4 times the sugar as my other recipe, and theoretically one should only alter one variable at a time, but this was a kitchen experiment - not a controlled, designed-for-journal-publication experiment. Also, no way on earth was I making 4 batches of dough to change each ingredient separately. So anyway, Knead for 5 - 8 minutes on a floured board until the dough is springy.
HERES THE BIG DIFFERENCE: Before, I allowed the dough to rise, then rolled it out and cooked it. This time, I rolled it out and put it on the tray, then allowed it to rise. In this case, I bagged it with a clean plastic bag, then put it in my vehicle with the windows up to rise (warm but not hot today, surprisingly). It took a little more than half an hour. While I waited, I diced up my toppings and watched an episode of The Big Bang Theory. Once the dough had risen, I topped it and cooked it as usual, with my Pizzaz.
With the leftover dough, I made sandwich rolls, since my oldest didn't want pizza tonight. He had a toasted cheese sandwich on a fresh roll. These rolls were cooked in my toaster oven. They're smaller than they look here. The large one is probably a six-inch roll; the small one was probably 4 inches.
I can't measure it now because my son ate it.
After having eaten it, I must say that the new recipe is tastier than my old one. I have an addition to try next time, however. If I'm not using the dough for a dessert (like fried dough or cinnamon rolls) I think I will add garlic powder at the beginning, with the yeast and flour, before the warm water. Or maybe some italian seasonings. Not much, just maybe 1/4 to 1/2 tsp. Either way, the pizza tonight was a vast improvement over my previous attempts at home pizza-making.
For a side dish (and this is the other reason I'm so late tonight) there was nothing delicious in my cupboard, so all 4 of us walked to our local grocery store, where we bought a bag of apples ($3.49 for a 3-pound bag, which contained 8 apples) and a container of blueberries ($1.88 a pint) and a container of cinnamon rolls for our dessert tonight (a "special of the week" deli item for $1.69 for 6)
We had to eat outside tonight because I was painting Andrew's birthday pinata. But I took a pic of the cinnamon rolls before they were mercilessly devoured.
They're totally gone now.
So, I had previously calcuated the cost of pizza dough to be $2.55 per batch. This included the "extra" dough that went into making the sandwich rolls tonight, as well as the cheese on the pizza. Tonight, we had pepperoni ($3 a pack but we used less than 1/3 of a pack so $1 is an over-estimate) and, on my three slices, onions, green olives, and banana peppers. I'm just going to guess $0.50 for all of that, although, again, probably an over-estimate. As a family, we ate 2 apples (cost of 1/4 of $3.49, or $0.88, and about 1/4 cup of blueberries each - believe it or not : the recommended serving size - for Luke and for me, or 1/4 of $1.88, or $0.47. Dessert was $1.69, because, of course, we managed to eat all 6 cinnamon rolls despite there only being 4 of us.
Our total is now: $2.55 dough and cheese + $1 pepperoni + $0.50 other toppings + $0.88 apples + $0.47 blueberries + $1.69 cinnamon rolls = $7.09. Happy eating.
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