i've been on the hunt for a perfect pizza crust recipe for a while now. i'm pretty sure i've finally found it. the recipe is from cook's illustrated with one little adjustment from me.

anyway, here it is:

2 large, 4 medium or 8 individual pizzas.

INGREDIENTS
1 3/4 cups water , warm (about 105 degrees)
1 envelope rapid-rise dry yeast
1 tablespoon granulated sugar (I add 2 more teaspoons because we like a slightly sweet crust)
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour , plus extra as needed
1 1/2 teaspoons table salt
Vegetable oil (or cooking spray) for bowl

INSTRUCTIONS
1. Set oven to 200 degrees for 10 minutes, then turn oven off.

2. Meanwhile, in bowl of food processor fitted with either metal or plastic blade, add water and sprinkle in yeast and sugar. Pulse twice to dissolve yeast. Add all remaining ingredients and process until mixture forms cohesive mass. Dough should not be sticky (if it is, add 2 more tablespoons flour and pulse briefly) nor should it be dry and crumbly (if it is, add 1 more tablespoons water and pulse briefly). Let rest for 2 minutes. Process for another 30 seconds.

3. Remove dough from food processor and knead by hand on floured work surface for 1 minute or until dough is smooth and satiny (dough will feel a bit tough at this point).

4. Very lightly oil large bowl with vegetable oil or cooking spray. Place dough in bowl (do not coat dough with oil) and cover with plastic wrap. Place in warm oven. Let rise for 40 minutes or until doubled. Remove from bowl, punch down, remove from bowl and separate into two round pieces. Let rest for 10 minutes under damp dish towel, then shape according to illustrations below, and add toppings.

5. Proceed to cook topped pizza in preheated 500-degree oven using the following guide to determine cooking time for pizza crust with topping but without cheese. All pizzas need to be cooked an additional two or three minutes after adding cheese, or until cheese is completely melted.



THIN CRUST

14-inch pizzas (Master Recipe makes 2) - 7 to 8 minutes
12-inch pizzas (Master Recipe makes 4) - 5 minutes
8-inch pizzas (Master Recipe makes 8)- 3 minutes.


MEDIUM-THICK CRUST

12-inch pizzas (Master Recipe makes 2) - 9 to 10 minutes
8-inch pizzas (Master Recipe makes 4) - 5 minutes
6-inch pizzas (Master Recipe makes 8) - 4 minutes.

we've found that it works best to roll this crust REALLY thin. it'll rise quite a bit as you bake it. it'll generally make 4 smallish pizzas so we eat it over a couple of nights. my fave sauce is pesto or this incredible veggie sauce that tim makes.

if you try it out, let me know!

* clean apartment

i haven't blogged about food or fitness in a long time. really, since i started  feeding my blogs into facebook. but, i've finally figured out that i don't have to feed them, i can tell it not to. so here we go, blogging about food and exercise again!

by the time tim and i moved to boise, i was almost back to the weight i was pre-wedding. which is my least favorite thing in the world.  so, once we got settled, i've been back to the gym with a vengeance. i was lucky enough to get to work with a personal trainer for four sessions at the beginning which was such a huge help getting started. now i'm meeting with her once a month to take my measurements and check my progress which, surprisingly, i really look forward to. the other really fantastic thing is that my friend rachel goes to my gym which, in the last couple of weeks has resulted in more trips to the gym per week than i've ever had in my life, it's been great.

so, the results so far are a loss of 7 pounds body fat since april 6. the downside of this is that i've gained 7 pounds of muscle aka the scale hasn't moved at all. ridiculous. but, i guess that's why they encourage doing measurements as well as the scale- 5 inches lost all over and a 6% decrease in my body fat! i'll take it!

i definitely have a long way to go. the big kicker right now is going to be killing my tcby habit. but man i love frozen yogurt (or froyo as i and many others like to call it).