American Style Pizza Dough And A Perfect Homemade Pizza Sauce

In the last pizza post, I shared detailed and step by step instructions for Country Style Pizza Dough; including easy video tips on techniques like stretch and fold, and stretching the pizza dough. Get a quick recap here. Thanks to all those who tried and got back with queries, pictures and so on; it feels so good to inspire people to make something wonderful, because it in turn inspires me to do more. Keep reading and trying!

So last week I ended up not baking pizza; kind of hard to believe, but with an almost empty pantry, there was not much cooking I could do and leave alone pizza. Lesson learned – never skip weekend shopping! This week, on the other hand, I stocked up pretty much everything and paid a bomb for some exotic stuff that I've been scouting for a while now. Now that I’m all set, it’s time to get to baking!

It’s something that has been argued and debated over, but the truth is “100% flour based crusts always taste better”. I myself try avoiding 100% all-purpose flour crust by adding about 25-40% whole wheat flour most of the time. But every once in a while, it feels good to follow the conventional recipe and this one is so.

So, here’s the American Style Pizza Dough, the 2^nd variety I learned from the online class. Now, if you’ve been making pizza dough at home, I bet you will find this familiar, because this is what we often come across in online recipes. This post will help you get the proportions right and the stretching techniques will only make it perfect!

Some of my friends have been asking for the most basic and easiest pizza sauce recipe; so this post comes with one such variety as well.

American Style Pizza Dough

This recipe makes 2, 12 inch pizzas

All-purpose flour, 2 ½ cups

Salt, to taste

Sugar, 2 teaspoons

Dry active yeast,  1 teaspoon dissolved in 60 ml water

Olive oil, 1 tablespoon

Water, about 160 ml

The process involved in making the dough, stretch and fold, storing, preparing the base, adding the toppings and baking are all same as what I have described here for country style pizza dough. However, this dough will tackier and stickier, which means this is going to be a tad difficult to work with.

Now, here is a super simple and perfect pizza sauce to pair along. To be frank, this is almost similar to what I have been making all this while, save for the vinegar bit.

Easy and Perfect Pizza Sauce

Olive oil, 1 teaspoon

Tomato puree, about 1 cup (you can even use canned whole, crushed or ground tomatoes and in such a case, you can skip the cooking part)

Freshly ground pepper, 1 teaspoon

Garlic powder, 1 teaspoon

Italian seasoning, ½ teaspoon

Salt, a pinch

Tomato sauce, 1 tablespoon

Apple cider vinegar, 1 teaspoon (you can even used red wine vinegar, bbq sauce etc instead.)

And feel free to experiment

Heat oil in a pan and saute ground pepper and garlic powder for a couple of seconds. To this add the puree and in medium heat, let the puree reduce and thicken. Add salt to taste along with Italian seasoning. When the sauce is almost done, add the tomato sauce and vinegar, stir well. Your sauce is ready.

Now, if you are using canned whole, crushed or ground tomatoes, you need not waste time cooking, but mix in all ingredients raw. If using whole/crushed, work with your hand to get a finer texture. Pizza sauce can be chunky too.

Apart from the normal meat toppings, I also used one exotic ingredient (as per Indian standard), Sun Dried Tomatoes, and believe me, it does take the whole pizza eating experience to next level ;-)