Homemade Pizza - part 1

We like to eat pizza once a week, usually on Friday or Saturday night. If it's a Saturday when I'm home without a pile of work (i.e., 3M work) to do, I like to make it from scratch.

From scratch pizza is so much better than anything you can buy, but like many better- than-store-bought-things, it takes time and is subject to variation. In other words, sometimes you can work really hard and end up with pizza that wasn't worth it. When this happens to me, I often think it's because I make it differently every time.

To address this vexing problem, I'm blogging the nitty gritty details of today's pizza attempt so I can refer back next time and be reminded what worked and what didn't.

Dough (adapted from the Olive Oil Dough recipe from this really good book)
2 3/4 cups lukewarm water (push the tap all the way back and a little to the left of center)
1 1/2 T yeast
1 1/2 T salt
1 T sugar
1/4 cup EVOO
6 1/2 cups flour (this time, I used closed to 4 cups of whole grain spelt; the rest all purpose)

So far, I've stuck pretty close to the recipe but varied the method, letting the water, yeast, salt and sugar brew for about 5 minutes before putting in the oil and flour.

Mixed it with a spoon and my hands and put it to rest around 10:45. Around 12:45 or thereabouts, I'll put it in the refrigerator to foment slowly until I'm ready to knead and form and rest again.