About the Recipe
We liked pizza, but couldn't find a local place that served the crust just the way Maria liked it.
Ingredients
1 (1⅓) cup warm water (70°–80° F)
2 (3) Tbsp olive oil
3 (4) cups bread flour
1 (1½) tsp garlic powder
2 (3) tsp basil
2 (3) tsp onion powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp active dry yeast
Note
For 1 thick or 2 thin crusts, use the numbers not in parentheses. For 3 thin or 2 thick crusts, use the numbers in parentheses.
Preparation
Put olive oil and water in bread machine pan. Cover with 2 cups flour, then add garlic powder, basil, onion powder, and salt. Cover with rest of flour (all-purpose flour works well if you don't have bread flour). Make small well in center, and put yeast in well. Set bread machine to "dough" cycle and turn on.
About half an hour before the dough is finished, place pizza stones in oven and preheat oven to 500° F.
When dough is finished, divide it into the desired number of pieces, and stretch or roll out each piece to desired size and shape. Cut a piece of parchment paper to the size of the dough and place it on the peel, then lay the dough on top of the paper. Top with sauce, shredded cheese, and any other toppings (pepperoni, bacon, salmon, onion, artichoke, roast beef, and olives all taste good, though probably not all together). Sprinkle olive oil over the top.
Slide the pizza (with parchment paper) off the peel and onto the pizza stone. Bake at 500°F for 10 minutes or so, until crust and cheese is browned.
Substitutions
For a lower-carb pizza, substitute 1 or 2 cups almond flour for the bread flour. This makes a slightly nuttier flavor and a more crumbly crust. You'll want to keep half the bread flour, or else the crust has trouble staying together.
For a less refined crust, substitute half of the bread flour with whole wheat flour. This give the crust the heartier whole-wheat flavor. Because whole wheat flour is slower to develop gluten, you probably don't want to replace all of the bread flour.
If you don't have parchment paper, scatter a handful of corn meal on the peel before putting the dough on it, and also scatter a handful of corn meal on the pizza stone just before sliding the pizza from the peel to the stone.