EZ dough

I have a new favorite pizza dough. Not only is it ridiculously easy if you have a standing mixer, but it also puffs up way better than the dough I was making before.

It was featured in a recent NYTimes food section article and I made a double batch for pizza night at our house (and had leftovers and another unused ball of dough for later in the week). The only thing that I changed about the recipe was that I rolled it out on parchment paper which makes it so much less messy (and risky) to transfer the pizza from the peel to the stone. In the past I've floured or cornmealed the peel and done the "quick jerk" method to tranfer the pizza to the oven and it never works as well--some toppings always go flying. Parchment means much less swearing.

Pizza Gallery

The classic (for the boy critter)

red sauce, regular mozzarella and pepperoni
Review: he was happy which is saying something

The classic (for grown-ups or kids who aren't scared of food)

San Marzano tomatoes, fresh mozzerella, chopped fresh basil.
Review: needed garlic or onion. Flavors were supposed to be "pure" but I thought it was a little flat.

The schwoop schwoop (with arugula and butter lettuce salad)

dried black misson figs, gorgonzola, caramelized onions and a little bacon, drizzled with balsamic when it came out
Review: good, but I should have at least doubled the quantities of caramelized onions, maybe even trippled it. Some rosemary would be good too. I didn't think the bacon was very noticable so I'd probably skip it next time.

The G3 (my favorite)

A knock off of a Silvio's combination: grapes, gorgonzola, green garlic with some mozzarella (the standard rubbery stuff) for the goo factor
Review: Excellent. Pungent, salty, sweet, gooy, garlicy. I could see some prosciutto also being good here.

The recipes I improvised from are here:
dough
the schwoop schwoop
classic for grown ups

The only thing I can't figure out how to improve about pizza night is how to sit down. Since only one pie at a time goes in the oven and our whole family can't agree on anything in the pizza department I end up standing in the kitchen for most of the night customizing pizzas and serving people. Granted, I do this with a large glass of wine in hand, but still, I'd love to find a way to feel less like the kitchen wench. Ideas anyone?