Nope, but someone on your trip read this article and was inspired to save the dehydrated boil in the bag meal for another day. Fresh made pizza from scratch might be an ambitious camp food but it is possible and on some occasions, worth the effort.
This recipe is based on the 6-3-3-13 no knead bread recipe developed by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François. Check out the link to find the full recipe, info about their book and more bread recipes. The full recipe makes enough dough for (8) 1 pound loaves of bread so we will scale it down to a third of its original quantity making enough dough for 2 large thin crust pizza's.
Dough
- 2 Cups Water (lukewarm)
- 1 Tablespoon yeast
- 1 Tablespoon salt
- 4 1/2 Cups Flour
- 1/4 cup additional flour
- 1/4 cup cornmeal
Toppings (for two pizza's)
- 8 Tablespoons pizza sauce
- 120 grams pepperoni
- 200 grams shredded cheese
- any other toppings you like
Equipment
- Pizza stone or aluminum pizza pan
- Rolling pin *optional
- Cutting board (large flat surface) *optional
- Kitchen scissors (optional)
- 3litre plastic container with a lid or a 3 litre plastic bag
- Pliers, oven mitt or some other way to handle a hot pizza / pizza pan
Directions
- Combine the water yeast and salt in the large plastic container and let sit 5 minutes. The yeast will foam up, don't be concerned if it does not all dissolve.
- Add the 4 1/2 cups flour and mix loosely (do not knead) until uniformly moist. Let sit at least 2 hours. The dough will rise, more than doubling in size and then begin to collapse. The dough can be used at any point after this or stored somewhere cool for up to two weeks.
- Start a small fire using enough dry wood or charcoal to fill a 15" circular firepit with approximately 2 inches of coals. Light the wood and once it has been reduced to hot coals lay the pizza stone on top and preheat for 10 minutes (5 minutes for a metal pizza pan).
- While the pan is preheating take the dough and divide in two. Take half of the dough, sprinkle liberally with flour so that it is not sticky and stretch, shape or roll it 1/8 to 1/4 inches thick and approximately 12" in diameter. It does not have to be perfectly round, it just needs to fit onto your pizza stone/pan. A rolling pin and flat surface will prvide the most uniform result however it is possible to create a crudely shaped crust by hand. Don't worry about shape perfection, just stretch it out gently until it is the size and thickness you want.
- Place the crust onto the pizza pan for 2 - 4 minutes. The heat quickly seals the crust and makes it easier to handle the pizza without using a pizza peel. Once the crust is cooked enough to hold its shape, remove it from the fire, flip it upside down and add your toppings to the "bottom" (When cooking this at home in an oven, this is not necessary).
- Put the topped pizza back on the stone and let it cook for 10-15 minutes until the cheese has melted and the crust is turing golden brown.
- Remove the pizza, slice and serve. If you do not have a cutting board, kitchen scissors are an excellent alternative to a knife or pizza wheel to cut the pizza into slices. One pizza could feed 4 if you served other fixings like a hearty italian salad otherwise in a hungry camp environment 2 people will have no problem polishing off 1 pizza.
Pizza Pan vs Pizza Stone
- Pizza Pan
PROS: The aluminum pizza pan is lighter and impervious to environmental conditions.
CONS: The pizza pan is more heat sensitive and therefor more prone to scorching the bottom without cooking the top. Use rocks under the pan or some other system to raise / lower the pan as required if your fire is too hot and your pizza is burning. - Pizza Stone
PROS: Does an excellent job of evening the heat providing a better result.
CONS: Heavier and must be protected from excessive moisture. If you get your stone soaking wet and then place it on a hot fire it is likely to crack in half. Store it in a plastic bag (perhaps the same one that you will use to mix your crust) and you should be fine.
