Howard County Homebrew Club

Erik's Award Winning Halloween Party Pizza Dough recipe

Pizza recipe, makes enough for 2-3 9" pizzas depending on how thick the crust is made.

1 envelope active dry yeast

12oz bottle of beer warmed up slightly

pinch of sugar

2 teaspons of kosher or sea salt

2 cups unbleached all purpose flour

3 tablespoons whole wheat flour

olive oil

Crushed spent grains 5-10 oz*

 

In large bowl mix the yeast with the beer and sugar and let stand until foamy, about 5-10 minutes. Stir in salt, whole wheat flour and 1 tablespoon of oil. Gradually add all purpose flour, stirring with wooden spoon until dough is fairly stiff. Turn dough out onto well floured work surface and knead, gradually adding as much extra flour as necessary until smooth, elsatic and no longer tacky, about 5-6 minutes.

Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl and brush the surface with olive oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rise in a warm, draft-free place until it doubles in bulk, 1.5 to 2 hours. If you don't have a warm spot in kitchen, try turning  oven to 300 degrees, put bowl on oven top.

 

Punch down the dough and knead it lightly, then return it to the bowl. Cover the bowl and let the dough rise again until doubled in bulk, about 45 minutes. Punch down the dough agaln and use or refrigerate.

The pizza dough can be refrigerated overnight or frozen for up to 1 month. Let the dough return to room temperature before uslng.

  

Top with pizza sauce, cheese whatever ingredients preferred. Pizzas from 2012 Halloween party were a Margherita Pizza with sliced tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, fresh basil; Sausage Pizza with italian sausage, shredded italian cheese mix, monterey jack.

Cooking time varies depending on toppings, anywhere from 8-15 minutes at 400-450 degrees depending on oven.

 If a crispier crust is desired put crust in oven for 5-10 minutes before topping with ingredients.

*Best spent grains seem to be those from a pale/ipa/brown ale. Light  pilsners and lagers don't seem to have enough flavor to really add much to dough. Darker grains might burn. To prepare the spent grains get 6-10oz of grains, lay on cookie sheet in thin layer. Put in oven on low heat about 100 degrees and dry grains. The slower and lower the heat , the less the grains will change color. Once dry use food processor to crush grains into a flour. More grains can be substituted for the flour, which will result in a rougher texture.