Tried making a pizza for the first time, crust and all.

I went with this quick dough recipe, mixed and stretched by hand and topped with some canned tomato paste, a bag of shredded mozzarella, and some Chris Brothers pizza toppings.

It turned out pretty well, but since the quick crust recipe didn’t include much proofing time the dough was not very flexible, so I had trouble stretching the crust without getting holes. (And yes I did try the spinny throw thing.) The solution is to just stretch it out and let holes form, then tear off dough from some other thicker part of the crust to just patch up the holes.

I used plain canned tomato paste, which turned out a bit too tangy, so I’ll need to sweeten it next time, or go with a prepared pizza sauce. I also tried putting the toppings under the cheese — inadvisable, it turns out, for greasy cured meats which need space for moisture evaporation so you don’t end up with soggy pizza.

Still, after about 20 minutes at 450F in the oven, the pizza that emerged made for an excellent lunch.

Thicker, denser crust than I’m used to, so next time I’m going to give it at least a few hours of proofing, see if I can get it flexible enough to split into two thin crusts.