A GIVEAWAY and Alton Brown's Pizza Dough

The kind folks at OXO sent us a kitchen scale to try out and it couldn't have come at a better time.  I'd been wanting to make Alton Brown's recipe for pizza dough and Alton only weighs flour by weight, not by volume.  I had attempted this recipe last weekend with miserable failure because I tried to convert weight to volume by asking "the google."

So when The Wife told me what came in the mail, I was looking forward to trying this again.  We love to make pizza dough and have a great recipe that's never failed us, but I'm always interested in trying out an Alton recipe.

Back to the fine folks at OXO - not only did they send us one kitchen scale, the sent a second for one lucky reader - That means it's GIVEAWAY TIME!  Details following the recipe.

Ingredients:

9 1/2 ounces of Flour (recipe calls for bread flour, but I used all purpose)
1 teaspoon active dry yeast
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons salt
5 teaspoons olive oil
3/4 warm (100-105 degree) water

Directions:

Place your mixing bowl on the OXO food scale, zero it out and measure out 9 1/2 ounces of flour.

Add in your yeast, sugar, salt and 2 teaspoons of olive oil and whisk to combine.

Making sure you have the dough hook attachment on, turn to "stir" and add the water.  When the dough has come together and pulls away from the sides of the bowl, turn the speed up to halfway (6 on a KitchenAid) and knead the dough for 10 minutes.

Place the dough on a lightly floured cutting board, kneading until smooth.



Put the remaining olive oil into your mixing bowl, and return the dough to the  bowl,

Roll it around so it's covered with the olive oil, cover with a warm towel and place somewhere warm and let the dough rise for an hour.  (This is where Alton and I part ways, he says to let the dough rise in the fridge for 24 hours, but I didn't have that much time- maybe next week.)

After an hour, your dough should have more or less doubled in size.

Preheat your oven to it's highest setting, mine is 525 - and make sure you're pizza stone is in the oven as it warms.

Turn it our onto a lightly floured cutting board and cut in half.  At this point you can either make two pizzas,or set one ball aside for another project.  I used the second dough ball for breadsticks to accompany dinner later that night.




I always find it easiest to start by patting your dough out into a circle as flat as you can get it, then use your rolling pin to get it to your desired flatness.  Make sure to turn the dough over several times.  Add flour as needed (by the tablespoon/large pinch.)

When it's as flat as you want it, place about one tablespoon of cornmeal on a pizza peel and transfer.

Give it another roll with the rolling pin and poke a bunch of holes in it with a fork - this will keep it from having large air bubbles in the oven.

Put the pizza on your pizza stone and bake for 1-2 minutes, just long enough for the dough to get firm enough that you can put toppings on and it will slide off of your pizza peel.  (if you try to place toppings on the fresh dough, you'll never slide it off of your peel onto your pizza stone.)












Voila - you're just made pizza dough.  And you'll never go back to store bought stuff again.
Now top it as you like.  I did olive oil, sliced garlic, tomatoes, spinach and fresh mozzarella - topped with garlic powder and red pepper flakes.

Bake until the edges are golden brown and you cheese is melted - about 7-8 minutes.

We both really enjoyed this dough - it seemed to be sturdier than our standard dough, although I attribute that to the increased kneading - cultivating the glutens in the flour.  Next time, I'll allow it to rise for the full 24 hours, but either way, this was delicious.

Enjoy!

Now on to the GIVEAWAY! One lucky reader will receive this OXO Good Grips 5lb Food Scale with Pull-Out Display courtesy of OXO.  This is a great product and we LOVE the pull-out display - so convenient for big bowls, etc.   

To Enter:1. Like One Couple's Kitchen on Facebook and leave a comment here letting us know you have done so.

2. For a 2nd entry, follow us on Twitter @1CouplesKitchen & leave a comment here letting us know you did so. OR if you already follow us on Twitter, leave us a comment letting us know that you already do.

3. For a 3rd entry, follow us on Pinterest & leave a comment here letting us know you did so.

4. For a 4th entry, tweet our giveaway to your followers and leave us another comment letting us know you did so.

ALL ENTRIES MUST BE RECEIVED NO LATER THAN 11 P.M. EST ON THURSDAY, MARCH 15TH.

Winner will be chosen at random.

Winner will be announced on Friday, March 16th! Saturday March 17th! (Sorry for the delay!)