S.L.
I use Rhodes bread dough. It's not really home made, but it's baked fresh, rises well and tastes great.
I'm wondering what spices I could add to the dough to give it a little extra flavor. I don't want to go too crazy, as I will still want my kids to eat it. But I would like it to be a little more interesting than just flour and water.
What have you added to your pizza dough to liven it up?
I use Rhodes bread dough. It's not really home made, but it's baked fresh, rises well and tastes great.
I've found it's not so much what you put IN the dough as it is what you put ON the dough.
Your basic dough recipe - flour, water, olive oil, a little salt, yeast and maybe a little sugar to feed the yeast- has a not bad flavor if it's risen enough (I love a yeasty taste to my crusts).
Once it's ready to spread out and make the pizza - some garlic oil brushed on the dough before adding anything else just gives it a nice base to work from.
If you want you can add garlic flavor by rubbing the bowl with a clove of garlic that your dough will do it's last rise in (but that's never enough for me - in case you can't tell - I LOVE garlic).
On the pizza (and I do this with take and bake too) - I sprinkle powdered garlic, add a layer of cut mozzarella (I cut from a block of cheese - it melts better than shredded), then sprinkle some dried oregano and basil.
My sister does basil with her home made pizza - tastes great!
I use cheap biscuits. We take 3-4 and squish them together then roll them out for individual pizzas. Teen size. I like thicker crust so mine aren't super thin.
I use spaghetti sauce or make some garlic butter for our sauce. Then with the Jimmy Dean Sage Sausage, Pepperoni, sauteed onions, bell peppers, and mushrooms our pizza is quite flavorful.
Try a little rosemary and see if you like that!
A good basic pizza dough will consist of flour, yeast, water, maybe a tiny bit of sugar to boost the yeast, good quality olive oil, and most importantly, salt. The link below is to a good basic recipe:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/pizza-dough-...
Good ingredients produce good results. You don't need anything other than basic all-purpose flour, and regular yeast. But the salt is important. Try finding an unrefined salt like Redmond Real Salt (available online), or a finely ground Himalayan salt. Those kinds of salts contain minerals, and the salt has not been cooked or bleached. A regular (refined) white table salt won't have flavor. The minerals in the unrefined salt are in minute quantities, of course, but the salt tastes better. And the olive oil choice is important. Choose an olive oil in a glass bottle that is dark green or nearly black, not in a cheap clear plastic bottle. Olive oil that's exposed to plastic and light will degrade and be less flavorful.
Then, if you can, make the dough well ahead of time, and put it in a zip-top plastic bag or another sealed container. You can make a large batch and split it up into separate containers, each one containing the amount of dough required for one pizza. Put it in the fridge for 3 days. The flavor has a chance to develop and the flour has time to absorb the yeast and water and oil. Dough that has rested for 2 or 3 days in the fridge is delicious and easier to work with.
Once you've rolled out the dough, you can grate some Parmigiano Reggiano cheese on top of it, and sprinkle some coarse salt around the perimeter. A little corn meal underneath the dough, sprinkled on the pan you're going to cook the pizza on, will also add some flavor and texture.
we add garlic powder or parmesan cheese to the dough. it adds a nice flavor to it that is not overwhelming to the pizza
I used to make my own before my health got too bad.I always kept the dough basic , made the sauce extra flavorful and let everyone put their own toppings on.I dusted the bottom and crust with cornmeal to give the crust a nice crunch.
When I was a SAHM I used to make my own pizza, but working full time I find that I can get take out pizza for about the same cost as making my own, and the time I save is priceless! One of the take out places here actually puts a little curry in their crust and it is very popular, even with the kids.