Basil Beer Pizza Crust Food

BEER PIZZA DOUGH WITH BRIE, BASIL AND PROSCIUTTO

Steps:

• In a bowl add tomatoes and using a spoon or your hands, squish the tomatoes so they are almost crushed but still have meaty pieces intact.
• Add the rest of the ingredients (oregano, olive oil, salt and crushed garlic) and set aside for the flavours to develop while you are making the dough. Note: The sauce is enough for 2 pizzas.
• Place yeast, sugar and beer in a bowl and mix together, let sit until it starts to foam about 5 mins. Add the olive oil.
• Mix flour and salt together, then stir in beer mixture .
• Mix together until the dough forms a nice ball. Turn out onto a floured surface and knead a few times. Continue to work in the flour until you have a smooth ball that isn't sticky. The dough should be very soft but you can add up to .5 cup more flour if needed.
• After making the dough, divide the dough in half, coat with olive oil and and then let rise covered with a clean cloth for about an hour
• Place a pizza stone 8 inches (20 cm) from the broiler and heat for 30 minutes at 500°F (260°C).
• Then turn to broil and heat for 10 minutes.
• If you're using a baking pan and not a pizza stone, preheat the oven to 425°F
• While the oven is preheating, place dough on floured surface and roll out to your desired thinness.
• Transfer to a floured pizza peel and add sauce and toppings. Using a quick, jerking motion, transfer the pizza onto the preheated pizza stone. Broil 3 to 4 minutes until crust and toppings are golden and slightly charred.
• If you're not using a pizza stone place the dough directly on a baking sheet brushed with olive oil and add the toppings. Bake at 425°F for 12 to 15 minutes until crust and toppings are golden and slightly charred.
• Cut into wedges and serve.

BEER PIZZA DOUGH RECIPE

Steps:

• In the standup mixer add the water and sprinkle the yeast on top, let sit 5-10 minutes then stir to combine. Add the beer, flour and oil, start to knead then add the salt and continue to knead for 5-7 minutes.
• Move the dough to a lightly floured flat surface and form into a ball, place in a lightly oiled bowl rolling the dough to lightly cover in oil, cover with plastic wrap or a clean tea towel, let rise in a warm draft free area for 1-2 hours or until doubled in bulk.
• Place the dough on a lightly floured surface and knead a few times, divide the dough into two parts or leave as one, cover with a tea towel and let rest* 20 minutes. Form the dough on 1-2 pizza rounds or cookie sheets, top with your favourite toppings and bake in a 425F (220C) oven for 12-15 minutes. Cut and serve. Enjoy!

BEER PIZZA CRUST

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
• Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl and mix thoroughly.
• Pour in the beer and mix well.
• The dough will be sticky.
• Spread a handful of flour on your work surface and dump the dough onto it.
• Tiss the dough around to coat it with flour and prevent it from sticking.
• Knead it 2 or 3 times to make it pliable.
• Shape the dough into a ball and divide it in two if you are making 2 thin crust pizzas.
• For a deep dish pie do not divide.
• Grease your pizza pan with oil and use a rolling pin to roll the dough out into a circle.
• Brush crust with olive oil lightly and then add your sauce and toppings.
• Bake for 12- 15 minutes or until golden brown on top.

BASIL PESTO PIZZA

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
• In a medium saucepan over medium heat, add 2 tablespoons of the olive oil and heat until shimmering, about 2 minutes, then add the onions. Saute on low until the onions are browned and caramelized, 20 to 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Set aside.
• Meanwhile, in a food processor, combine the walnuts and 1 cup of the oil and process until smooth, about 1 minute. Add the Parmesan, lemon juice, garlic and 1 teaspoon sea salt and process until blended, about 1 minute. Add 3 3/4 cups of the chopped basil, reserving the remaining 1/4 cup for topping the pizza. Add the spinach and process until smooth, about 1 minute.
• In a medium skillet over medium heat, add the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil and heat until shimmering, about 2 minutes. Add the olives and saute for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat, then add the balsamic vinegar and a little sea salt to taste.
• To assemble the pizzas, place the pizza crusts on two sheet pans or large round pizza pans. Spread the pesto onto the crusts, leaving a 1/4-inch border. Top with the caramelized onions, tomatoes, reserved basil, and olive mixture. Garnish with a little grated Parmesan if you like. Bake until the crusts are golden brown, 8 to 10 minutes.

PIZZA WITH FRESH TOMATOES AND BASIL

Steps:

• Position 1 oven rack in the center and the second rack on the bottom of the oven and preheat to 450 degrees F. Sprinkle the cornmeal over 2 rimless baking sheets. Roll out each piece of Pizza Dough into a 10 to 11-inch-diameter round. Transfer 1 dough to each prepared baking sheet.
• Drizzle 2 teaspoons of oil over each Pizza Dough. Sprinkle the mozzarella over the Pizza Dough, dividing equaling and leaving a 1-inch border around each pizza. Arrange the tomato slices in a single layer over the cheese. Sprinkle with the Parmesan. Arrange basil leaves on top, drizzle with a little more olive oil and sprinkle garlic all over. Bake the pizzas until the crusts are crisp and brown on the bottom and the cheese is melted on top, about 15 minutes. Drizzle 1 teaspoon of oil over each pizza. Sprinkle with basil for garnish and salt. Cut the pizza into wedges and serve immediately.
• Mix the warm water and yeast in a small bowl to blend. Let stand until the yeast dissolves, about 5 minutes. Mix the flour and salt in a food processor to blend. Blend in the oil. With the machine running, add the yeast mixture and blend just until the dough forms. Turn the dough out onto lightly floured surface and knead until smooth, about 1 minute. Transfer the dough to a large oiled bowl and turn the dough to coat with the oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set aside in a warm draft-free area until the dough doubles in volume, about 1 hour. Punch the down dough and divide into 2 equal balls. (The dough can be used immediately or stored airtight in the refrigerator for 1 day.)

PIZZA CRUST

Steps:

• Part 1, (A day ahead of time).
• 2 Cups hot water (tap hot, not heated. Mustn't be over about 120º or it will kill the yeast.
• 2 tsp yeast. This is a scant package. I buy yeast in bulk (like a pound) and keep it in the freezer, where it'll stay usable for a few years, so I can use 2 tsps at a time. A package is normally about 2-3/4 teaspoons (I think).
• ½ tsp barley malt. Barley malt is a thick, golden liquid sugar substitute. This tiny bit (it's not a mistake for ½ Tbsp) will add a lovely flavor to the crust. It should be available at your local 'health food' store. Keep it in the refrigerator so that it doesn't grow mold, unless you end up making pizza two or three times a week, which would use up one of those little jars of barley malt before mold becomes a worry. It's a pain to use when it's cold. I add it to the hot water first, which gets it off the spoon (a problem) and also brings down the temperature of the water a bit (for yeast safety).
• 2 Cups bread flour -- higher gluten (protein) content than regular all-purpose flour.
• 1 tsp gluten flour, which will raise the gluten content to the right point, making the crust really chewy. Also available at a 'health food' store.
• Mix the water, yeast, and barley malt together. Get that yeast dissolved by stirring fairly gently. Use a big mixing bowl, Let them sit while you get the flour and gluten flour out from wherever you keep them. You should be seeing the liquid getting a little frothy on top. Add in the flours and mix well, beating them a bit for a few minutes to incorporate air (possibly just to feel good about being actively involved and to get them well mixed). Cover with a damp kitchen cotton towel (not a fuzzy, which would be harder to clean if the sponge [which is what is in that bowl] rises enough to touch the towel), and let it sit out on the counter for a day. Don't refrigerate. This is a fermentation process, which develops and matures (great word) the dough, greatly enhancing the flavor. (I found out about this from a great little book of cookery essays, 'Home Cooking', by Laurie Colwin.) It also gives the yeast time to multiply, which is why we used so little yeast at the beginning. In fact, it will be even better if you let it sit for two days, which will make the fermentation more powerful and the dough even better tasting. If I were going to let it sit for two days rather than one I'd probably cut the yeast down to 1 teaspoons Check the sponge at the end of the first day, if you're going for two. If it looks like it's going to bubble up to the towel, you might stir in another half-cup of flour, to slow things down a bit. Also, get the towel damp again if it's dried out.
• Part 2, (A couple or three hours before supper.)
• Take the sponge, which should still be very wet and gooey, and stir in, mixing well (If you don't you'll end up with clumps of salt or Mrs. Dash in your crust, and you won't like that.):.
• 2 Tbsp (or so) olive oil.
• 2 Tbsp salt.
• 2 Tbsp (or so) dried basil.
• a couple of dashes of Mrs. Dash garlic un-salt.
• It's really nice if you have a powerful mixer. I found a Kitchen Aid at a second-hand store and that's what you need - if the mixer's not built for kneading bread dough you'll just burn it out, and doing it by hand is not so awful. People have done it and enjoyed doing it for thousands of years after all.
• Add flour in a half-cup or a cup at a time (add a cup until you see that you're getting close, then switch to the half-cup) until the dough pulls away cleanly from the mixing bowl or until it's not sticking to your hands too much. If you're using a mixer, then mix it at medium speed for about five minutes. If you're doing it by hand, turn out the dough onto a floured board and knead it until it feels like a baby's ass. All those books blather about feeling silky-smooth and so on, but they mean like a baby's ass. Cover with the moistened towel and let sit for about ½ hour. Divide the dough into two halves and re-cover one while you stretch the other. You could use a rolling pin, but that would squeeze too much gas out of the bubbles - better dough if you just stretch. I use 2 cookie sheets, and I oil them lightly with olive oil. I pull the dough until it's about the size and shape of the sheet. I then cover it with that towel and let it rest while I work on the second half of the dough. It needs to rest about 15 minutes. This lets the gluten relax. If it doesn't get that chance, the dough will contract for a while after you stretch it out to size. While this is happening, I oil the pans (cookie sheets in my case) lightly with olive oil.
• Stretching takes a bit of practice, but it's not like you have to toss it up, spinning, in the air. I gently flatten what was a ball of dough into a disk. "Gently?" Well, there are some times when you take dough and slam it down on a breadboard. This is not one of them. After I get it into a rough circle of about eight to ten inches in diameter. I hold the dough with both hands, holding it about an inch in from the circumference, with my hands at about 10:00 and 2:00, and I let the dough hang down, using its weight to stretch it. I move it around in its circle by moving my hands, bringing them together, changing grips and moving them apart. The point is to try to get the dough thinner and still maintain an even thickness. The edge remains thicker than the interior. You want that because the edge is where it's most likely to tear, until the center starts to get pretty thin. I keep checking the size against the size of the pan I'm going to use. When it's getting pretty close I put the dough on the pan and then turn it upside-down and put it back on the pan. This puts a light coating of oil on the top side of the dough. I then stretch the dough the rest of the way, pulling along the edges to thin them down a bit. I end up with edges that are somewhat thicker than the middle portion of the pizza, but I like that. I keep a small container (a bouillon cup or a pudding cup) of water nearby, and if the dough pulls apart I very lightly moisten the edges of the hole and glue them back together.
• Cover the crusts with that ol' moistened towel and let rise for ½ hour or so. Do what you do for topping, and put in a pre-heated 475º oven until crust at edge is golden brown. I use two racks and switch the pans up and down about half-way through. Cooking time is about 12 minutes, usually.
• If you want to make it even better, go to Home Depot and get two 12 x 12 Saltillo floor tiles. They are thick and unglazed, and you just lay one on each oven rack. They act as heat reservoirs. It will take about 45 minutes to heat the oven, and you can go through the torture of trying to bake the pizza on those tiles, but it's just about as good to put the pans on top of the tiles. The tiles will make sure that the oven stays hot while you put the pizzas in, and they will see to it that the bottom of the pizza gets its share of the heat. It really improves the pizza, but I have to admit that I don't bother, myself. I did it for a long time, but it got tiresome to find a place to put the tiles when they're not in the oven, and I found myself breaking them too often, moving them around. They're cheap enough, as opposed to the hoity-toity pizza stones they sell in "gourmet" stores, which are too thin to do any good.
• Mangia bene!

CHICAGO-STYLE BUTTER AND GARLIC PIZZA CRUST

Steps:

• In large bowl, dissolve yeast in 1/4 cup lukewarm water.
• Add 1/4 cup flour and the sugar, stir together.
• Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for 20 minutes.
• Stir the remaining 1 cup lukewarm water, 3 cups flour, the cornmeal and salt into the yeast mixture.
• Combine the butter and garlic; mix into the dough.
• Turn out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead until soft and elastic, 10-12 minutes.
• Lightly grease a large bowl, add the dough and turn to coat.
• Cover and set in a warm place until the dough is doubled in size, 1 hour.
• Punch dough down, then knead for 2-3 minutes.
• Grease a 9x13-inch baking pan, then press in dough to cover the bottom and 2 inches up the sides; let rise for 20 minutes.
• Preheat the oven to 500 degrees.
• Top the pizza dough with your favorite toppings.
• Lower the oven to 450 degrees and bake for 30 minutes.

BETH'S PIZZA CRUST

Steps:

• Combine yeast and warm water.
• Stir until dissolved.
• Add remaining ingredients and mix well.
• Let rest 5 minutes.
• Roll out to size and shape you need.
• (I have used this same size recipe in jelly roll pans and on round baking stones.) Bake at 450* for 15 minutes or until golden.
• A couple tips: Sometimes I omit the sugar.
• Instead, I add several good shakes of Italian seasoning mix (just dried herbs).
• Use your imagination, this is hard to mess up.

BEER PIZZA CRUST

Steps:

• In metal mixing bowl, add flour and salt. Mix.
• In large glass mixing cup add yeast.
• Then warm water, not lukewarm, warmer.
• Stir. Add sugar slowly, and stir once.
• It should start to bubble. That is called proofing.
• Pour yeast mixture into flour mixture and slightly stir and add the can of beer. Mix.
• Add more flour if necessary. I have found I need about 1/3 cup more flour but it seems to depend on the weather. The dough should stay together when pressed. Separate into two portions. Pack each portion togetrher with your hands.
• Preheat over 425*.
• Spray Pam on two pizza pans.
• Place each portion in the pan. Oil your fingers and press the dough from the middle out until the pan is covered. Don't worry if it looks a little uneven, that is ok. If you want to prick with a fork you may.
• Bake about 7- 10 minutes. Take out.
• Note: This prevents soggy crusts.
• Add any toppings. Bake until crust is slightly brown and toppings are hot and cheese melted. Usually 15 minutes,.

BASIL BURGERS

Steps:

• Preheat an outdoor grill for high heat.
• In a bowl, mix the ground beef, Worcestershire sauce, basil, garlic salt, and pepper. Form the mixture into 4 burger patties.
• Lightly oil the grill grate, and cook burgers about 6 minutes, turning once, to an internal temperature of 160 degrees F (70 degrees C), or to desired doneness. Serve on hamburger buns.

BASIL BEER PIZZA CRUST

Steps:

• If using a bread machine, simply add all the ingredients in the order given. Make sure that the salt and yeast do not touch, and that the yeast does not touch the liquid, especially if you have a bread machine that preheats the ingredients.
• If making by hand:.
• Pour beer into a cup and sprinkle the yeast on top. Let sit for about 5 minutes or until yeast starts bubbling and foaming.
• Mix all dry ingredients. Slowly add in beer and yeast mixture. Combine all ingredients.
• Kneed dough on a cutting board or countertop for approximatley 8-10 minutes. Use flour on the counter top and your hands to ensure it doesn't stick. The dough is ready when it's elastic and you can see little bubbles in it.
• Place dough in a bowl (spray first with non-stick spray) and cover with a dish towel. Place somewhere warm (I use the oven preheated to about 200F and then cooled off). Let rise for about 30-40 minutes, or until doubled in size.
• Roll out dough using a rolling pin. Top with whatever you like!
• Bake in 475F preheated oven for 8-10 minutes. If using a pizza stone, make sure you preheat the stone in the oven.
• When the crust is brown and the cheese is browning, remove from the oven and let pizza stand for a few minutes. This will allow the cheese to solidify and make it easier to cut.