Pizza Basics

• The Dough
• The Rising
• The Rolling
• The Baking
• The Grilling

The Dough

Mom's Pizza Dough products are hand-made to ensure great taste. Pizza dough is nothing more then flour, yeast and salt. The simple nature of the ingredients means Mom's Pizza Dough's fabulous taste comes from the quality of the ingredients and the handmade process. As such, Mom's Pizza dough uses quality local artisan and organic products whenever possible.

Mom's Pizza Dough is available in individually frozen balls of pizza dough. The dough is frozen immediately so we can avoid preservatives and create a delicious gourmet crust.

Mom's Pizza Dough is available in both the original dough and now a 100% whole wheat dough.

The Rising

Remove dough from outer packaging. Allow the dough to thaw in the unopened plastic bag at room temperature for 10-12 hours or in the refrigerator for 1-2 days before use. Remove the dough from the refrigerator about 20 minutes before use, bringing it to room temperature.

The Rolling

Remove dough from the plastic bag and place onto floured surface. Begin shaping the dough by flattening it with your hands as much as possible and make sure that both sides of dough are well floured. You can roll the dough out to desired shape using your hands or a rolling pin. Roll dough to either 14” disc or to fit a cooking sheet. Dough should be rolled to 1/2” thickness.

The Baking

Preheat oven to 500°. Place the oven rack on the lowest setting possible.
After dough is rolled to desired size, place on a peel generously sprinkled with cornmeal or a lightly oiled cookie sheet. Brush dough with olive oil and top. if using a peel, it is important to get the pizza into the oven quickly to prevent the dough from sticking.

(Typically, a wooden peel or paddle is used to transfer the pizza to a hot pizza stone already in the oven. If you do not have a peel, you can place the pizza directly onto a cold pizza stone sprinkled with cornmeal. You may need to cook the pizza a couple minutes more.)

Bake on bottom rack for 7-10 minutes, until slightly brown.

The Grilling

Grilling pizza is easier than you think. The directions are exactly the same for the grill as for the oven. Simply pre-heat your grill to 500 degrees and throw the pizza on. Here are a few tips from my own experience:

• If you're using a pizza stone, put it directly on the grill, just like you do in the oven. One note of caution, however, the stone can blacken more quickly. I solved this problem by getting a cheap one from Cost Plus and keep it outside just for the grill. I save my nice one for the oven.
• Baking sheets work great too, but make sure you use one that's on the thicker side. If it's too thin, the crust burns on the bottom before the pizza is done. I found a great pizza pan for about $5 at Longs.
• The grill comes in handy when you are having a pizza party. One problem with serving more than one pizza is waiting to cook each individually in your oven. What I do is use both my oven and grill at the same time. Works like a charm.