Pizza Dough Master Mix

Tammy: This month’s Recipe of the Month winner is Lori McClure, of Mackinaw, IL. Her recipe is a master mix for Pizza Dough. We love pizza at my house. But my hubby would rather have no pizza than eat homemade pizza. So I’m always on the lookout for a “different” recipe that he might like. And I found one here! The mix of flours and cornmeal give it a slightly different texture, which is what makes the crust. You mix up the dry ingredients, measure 3 C. into each zipper baggie, and in the freezer it goes. Then when you want pizza, grab a bag of dry ingredients, add it to water, oil and yeast in your bread machine, press start, and you’ll be ready to go in no time!

The recipe, as Lori posted it, calls for 16 C. bread flour, or a 5 lb. bag. Lori and I had an interesting discussion about this. I asked which she used. Because my bag of bread flour said it should hold approximately 19 C. of flour. But I measured it out, and got just over 17 C. And I measured it just like they said to on the bag… fluff the flour with a spoon, spoon it into a measuring cup, and level off the top, without tapping the cup to settle the flour. Lori measures by scooping her measuring cup into the flour, tapping to get air pockets out, and then leveling off. She gets 16 C. from her bag of flour that way. Lori pointed out that equivalency charts say 1 lb flour = 4 C, which means a 5 lb. bag should have 20 C. of flour in it. So, based on those discrepancies, we went with 16 C. for the recipe.
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Assembly Directions:
In a large bowl, mix the bread flour, flour, cornmeal, sugar, salt and baking powder until they are evenly combined.

Freezing Directions:
Measure 3 C. of mix into a one-quart zipper bag. Repeat 8 times for each recipe, as 1 recipe makes 9 bags of mix. Put 4 to 5 bags of mix in 2 one-gallon freezer bags, or all of them in a two-gallon freezer bag. Seal, label and freeze. OR put 3 C. of mix into 9 one-quart freezer bags. Seal, label and freeze each bag.

Serving Directions:
Remove a bag of dough mix from the freezer, and allow it to come to room temperature. For each bag of mix, add to your bread machine:

1 C. warm water
2 T. olive oil or other cooking oil
Add the bag of dough mix, and
1 t. active dry yeast… NOTE: 1 envelope of yeast = 2-1/4t., so you only need part of an envelope, if you don’t use bulk yeast.

Follow the instructions for your bread machine for the dough cycle. When the dough cycle is complete, allow the dough to rest in the bread machine for 30-60 minutes. OR cover the dough with greased-plastic and allow to rest for 30-60 minutes, on the counter or in the refrigerator. When you’re ready to proceed, grease a 16” –20” pizza pan, or an 11”x17” jelly roll pan. Punch down the dough with a plastic scraper as you remove it to the pizza pan. Spread the dough edge to edge, top with pizza sauce and your favorite pizza toppings. Bake at 425 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

Comments:
This makes a tasty pizza crust! It’s different because of the combination of flours that are used. You can make the pizza without letting the dough rest for 30-60 minutes, but it’s harder to spread in the pan. When you divide it into the 9 bags, if you have some leftover, you can divide it into the bags, or just throw it away. When I measured mine, I was short 1/2 to 3/4 C. of mix for in my last bag. So I removed 1T. from each of the other 8 bags to make up the difference for the last bag. Worked like a charm!

If you would like to try this recipe, but don’t want to make 9 crust mixes in case you don’t like it, make 1/4 of the recipe. That will give you crust for 2 pizzas and maybe a little leftover, which you can just throw away. To make 1/4 of the recipe, mix 4 C. bread flour, 2 C. flour, 1/2 C. cornmeal, 2 T. sugar, 1 T. + 1-1/2 t. salt, 1 T. + 1-1/2 t. baking powder. Combine and follow directions as above.

If you don’t have a bread machine, see the March 2004 issue of our newsletter online for info on how to convert bread machine recipes.

Nutritional Info: Dry Mix (12 servings per crust)
Per Serving: 116 Calories; trace Fat (3.0% calories from fat); 4g Protein; 24g Carbohydrate; trace Dietary Fiber; 0mg Cholesterol; 437mg Sodium.
Exchanges: 1-1/2 Grain (Starch).

Nutritional Info: Prepared Dough (12 servings per crust)
Per Serving: 137 Calories; 3g Fat (17.5% calories from fat); 4g Protein; 24g Carbohydrate; trace Dietary Fiber; 0mg Cholesterol; 438mg Sodium.
Exchanges: 1-1/2 Grain (Starch); 1/2 Fat.