GUEST POST : THE BRAUMEISTER'S WIFE

I am beyond excited to have my very first guest post on my blog! If you have not yet visited The Braumeister's Wife than its a must! Her Food blog is to die for ! She posts the yummiest recipes and she is here today sharing with us her delicious pizza recipe! 

Hey All! I'm Rachel Rose of the Braumeister's Wife, a food blog. My dear friend Alycia has graciously invited me to do a guest post, so here it goes! 

I've always loved pizza. I'm not sure if it was the Ninja Turtles influence as a kid, wondering why I couldn't eat pizza for every meal; but I'm sure I would have loved it (sans the anchovies or peanut butter and jelly of course). Throughout the years I've discovered what I really like in a pizza, and each pizza I make it gets a little closer to perfection. The most recent take, I combined a chewy sourdough crust with Billy's garlic butter. Of course if you don't have time to begin a sourdough starter, regular crust will be awesome too. What really made this pizza the best though, is truly the garlic butter. It is a nice base below the tomato sauce, and it also allows the crust to brown nicely- packing a delicious bite. So if you're ready to revamp your homemade take on pizza give this recipe a whirl. 

Recipe: Sourdough Pizza with Garlic Butter

Inactive Time: Overnight Active Time: 1 ½ hours

Yield: 2 medium-large pizzas Serves: 4-5

Cook's Note: It may seem daunting at first, but the dough is easy to put together (no kneading!). Just split up the work as directed, finishing the dough one day and your next day will be easy to assemble the pizza.

Ingredients:

Dough:

3/4 cup sourdough starter, at least 2 weeks old and activated

2 1/4 cup lukewarm water* (or 2 cups if using only white ap flour)

2 1/2 cup ap flour

1 1/2 white whole wheat flour

3/4 tbsp salt

flour and cornmeal for dusting

Garlic Butter:

¼ cup butter, melted

2 garlic cloves, minced

½ tsp dried oregano

pinch of salt

Tomato Sauce:

1 ½ tbsp Olive Oil

2 Garlic cloves, minced

1, 15oz can tomato sauce

½ tsp Dried Oregano

½ - 1 tsp salt

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp garlic powder

1 - 2 tsp sugar

Toppings:

⅓ cup Olives

1 Bellpepper, sliced

⅓ cup Mushrooms, sliced

2 mild-Italian sausages, casings removed and browned

1 ½  cup Mozzarella, shredded 

½ cup Parmesan, shredded

Process:

Dough:

1) Pour sourdough starter into a large bowl. Add water and flour to bowl. Stir to combine. Let rest for 20 minutes.

2) Add salt and incorporate into dough. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let rise for 1 - 2 hours. At this point you could skip to step 3, or as I prefer, place dough in fridge. The dough is easier to handle chilled, and the longer you store it in the fridge (up to 3 days) will allow the dough to sour further.

3) On the day you desire to make your pizza, pull dough out of the fridge. Flour your hands well and pull half of the dough up with one hand, and pinch off where you desire. Try not to apply too much pressure, the goal is to keep as many air bubbles in the dough so that you have a more airy crust. {View Pictorial}

4) Coat a clean surface with a little flour and a little cornmeal, place piece of dough upon surface. Flour your hands well. Gently tuck in ends of dough underneath creating a ball, so that the top begins to dome, and the loose ends are tucked underneath. (Form the ball quickly, the less you play with it the more airy interior you will achieve.) Place roughly shaped ball at opposite edge of board. With hands cupped around ball of dough, with the sides of your hands resting on the board, pull ball of dough to yourself. By doing so, the edges are sucked in under the ball you formed and the top is "stretched" to create a tight exterior surface. Form two loaves. Let formed balls of dough rest for 45 minutes to an hour before rolling out. Prep other ingredients at this point.

Garlic Sauce:

1) Add all ingredients into a bowl and mix well. Taste, and set aside.

Tomato Sauce:

1) Heat skillet over medium heat. Add olive oil. Once oil is hot, add garlic. Fry for two minutes, add tomato sauce, oregano, salt, onion and garlic powder, and sugar. Stir sauce occasionally. Taste for seasoning. Once sauce begins to bubble, turn heat down to low until ready to use.

Assemble:

1) Heat oven to 400 or 500º F, if using a pizza stone allow it to gradually get hot with the oven. 

2) Sprinkle a clean surface (I use a pizza peel or cutting board) with flour and cornmeal mixture. Begin rolling out your pizza round (make one pizza at a time). Add flour when needed. I like to roll the dough out in long strokes, leaving the crust a little thicker. You may also roll crust to an even thickness and fold over your crust. Once you have formed the pizza round, shake the board the pizza is on to make sure it will slide off easily once you decide to bake it. It's a little harder to do this once all of the toppings are on. 

3) Using a pastry brush, brush garlic butter all over pizza round, especially covering the crust. Very lightly add a small amount of the tomato sauce, you should still be able to see the dough through the sauce in areas. Top your pizza with half of the amount of the cheeses and toppings. Reserve some shredded cheese for after the pizza is baked.

4) Gently shake your pizza on the board to make sure it slides easily. Slide the pizza on to the heated pizza stone in the pre-heated oven. (You can also use a foil-line baking sheet successfully too.) Close the oven door and bake for 10-15 minutes, checking occasionally for doneness. I like my pizza a little browned and toasty. You may want to turn your oven fan on because the cornmeal/flour may cause smokiness at this high temperature.

5) Remove pizza from oven and let set for a couple of minutes before slicing. Add remaining cheese if you so desire. Enjoy!