Pizza! (dough/crust)

Pizza1.jpg

This is pretty specific to my equipment and it's taken a few tries, but I think I've nailed it. I bake my pizza in a 17" perforated, non-stick pan that I bought at Aldi's for $2.99. I also have a large glass turntable that I salvaged from a long dead microwave oven years ago, and is also 17" in diameter.
Dough for one pizza
1 1/4 cups bread flour
1 1/4 cups tipo 00 flour
In a small bowl mix the following and let proof for about 5 minutes:
1 cup lukewarm water
1 Tbsp yeast
1 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
Add mixture to the flour and mix on slow until incorporated, then add 1 Tbsp olive oil. Increase speed and knead for about 5 minutes. Form dough into a ball, cover bowl and let rise in a warm place for 30-45 minutes. I have a combo microwave/convection oven that I can set to 100 degF in convection mode - works great for rising dough. Preheat oven to 475 degF. Mix dough with dough hook to punch it down. Spread 1 Tbsp of olive oil on 17" glass dish, using hands. The oil on your hands will prevent the dough from sticking to your hands, as this is a wet dough. Also, since it is wet, it does not lend itself to tossing. Spread the dough evenly on the glass dish. Sprinkle corn meal lightly over the dough. Place the pizza pan, inverted, over the dough and flip. Shortly, the dough will release from the glass dish onto the pan. By doing this inversion, the dough will not get pushed into the perforations in the pan. Spread out sauce (simple marinara), sprinkle lightly with grated Romano, then add mozzarella and desired toppings. The one pictured has pepperoni and canned mushrooms (which I prefer on pizza). Bake on the bottom rack for about 15 minutes. The pizza can be transferred to the glass dish for cutting and serving, to avoid damaging the non-stick coating on the pizza pan. The crust is crispy on the bottom, has a nice chewiness and can be held with 3 fingers from the edge without slopping over.

Nice. The only thing I would do differently is not spread the mozzarella before baking--rather, spread it quickly when you take the pizza out of the oven. To my taste, the cheese is a textual and tastier delight that way--and it doesn't burn your tongue.

Thanks for sharing that Howie.
I have the Aldi pizza trays also, use a fairly wet dough and haven't (yet!) had the dough fall into the holes but i can see that it could if it were looser.
I also have a microwave/convection over (also from Aldi as it happens is that where you got yours?) and hadn't connected the dots to use for proving dough, nice idea. usually my home is plenty warm enough anyway but a nice even prove is a good thing.
Have you used the convection oven for cooking the pizza or do you use your regular oven.
cheers
Barb

My convection/microwave is a Sears-Kenmore. I do the pizza in my electric oven, which, although it also has a convection setting, I don't use for the pizza. The lowest rack at 475 degF (245 degC) provides direct heat to the underside of the pan for crisping the crust, something that a convection setting won't do. Sometimes I will use the convection for re-heating pizza, but even here, I prefer a skillet on low heat with a lid.

Howie, that's-a nice pizza!

Yeah, it's killin' me to look at that picture right now.

We would've used twice as much pepperoni.

We would've used twice as much pepperoni.

Carl, I used a very good, local pepperoni and much more would have been overkill.