well, it's not apple but it's a pie

PIZZA à la ME

i've no idea where i got the original recipe from, but i've tweeked it and made it my own. enjoy!

1 cup warm water

1 (1/4-ounce) envelope active dry yeast

1 teaspoon honey

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt(if desired)

Yellow cornmeal, for sprinkling the baking sheet (it's not just for texture, trust me you'll be glad you added it when you're able to easily pull off the pie from the pan)

In a large bowl, combine the water, yeast, honey, and 1 tablespoon of the olive oil, stirring to combine. Let sit until the mixture is foamy, about 5 minutes.
Add 1 1/2 cups of the flour and the salt, mixing by hand until it is all incorporated and the mixture is smooth. Continue adding the flour, 1/4 cup at a time, working the dough after each addition, until the dough is smooth but still slightly sticky (i like to add a bit of cornmeal into the mix just for flavour, but you don't need to). You might not need all of the flour.



Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until the dough is smooth but still slightly tacky, 3 to 5 minutes.
Add the remaining olive oil into a large bowl or ziplock bag. Place the dough in the bag, turning to coat with the oil. Seal bag (or place plastic wrap over the bowl) and set in a warm place, free from drafts until doubled in size, about 1 1/2 hours (i usually don't wait that long)



Prepare the baking stone, or sheet, once you're ready to start "spreading" the dough. Sprinkle 13"-15" pizza pan with cornmeal.



Place dough on lightly floured surface and flatten the ball, sprinkle flour on top surface too. Continue to spread dough evenly from the center out until it resembles really thick flatbread. Ok the next step can be extremely difficult. Place the dough over "open fists", that is bend your fingers only at that joint right in the middle of them as if you're pretending to make paws. Next, slowly rotate the dough until it is the size that you want.



Be careful to stretch the dough evenly because it will easily tear if you do not keep rotating it on your fists. If you find this too difficult, use a rolling pin, but be sure to keep all surfaces coming in contact with the dough floured. Once you have reached the size that you want, spread dough carefully on pizza stone, or sheet, and with your hands spread the dough to the edges making sure that there is a uniform thickness throughout.

Next, top with the italian/spaghetti/pizza sauce of your choice using as much as you desire (i think less is better). Next add as much shredded mozzarella cheese as you like (again, i think not so much is best), or you can use whatever cheese you like. you can sprinkle dry herbs of your choice at this point, or you can even mix them in with the flour but don't do both as they will be overpowering.

Top as desired making sure that toppings are uniform in size and symetrically positioned on the pie as you will be sure to have indigestion if your pie is not balanced.



Bake at a really hot temperature (the oven i used has no temperature markings) for about 20 minutes, until the cheese is browned and the crust is golden and the pepperoni has a little black at the very edges.

Pull out of oven and cut as desired.



Serve immediately and with ice cold coca-cola.



Eat. Enjoy.