Pizza dough has been my passion now for the past six months. I read everything Italian. I’ve swapped flour with some of the best pizza chefs on the east coast. And I am finally beginning to understand what ”00 imported flour” really means to all those cooks and chefs who call us to see if we can replicate this wonderfully  fine flour with an American grown and locally milled wheat.
               
The answer: Not really, it will not be the exactly same thing. We can mill flour as fine as the 00 standard, but we are local, of course, not imported, and our grain is an American variety of wheat.

Pizza dough made with Daisy Flour becomes an interesting bready dough that surrounds the ingredients but never overwhelms them… I like to keep these high-edged baked forms in the freezer. When company comes by, I fill them with all the leftovers, piling up sausage or ground meat, drizzle it with a red sauce or a white sauce, then fill the form with layers of tomatoes, basil and oregano, onions, corn, mushrooms, and your favorite cheese on top.
Pop them into a 350° oven or the microwave just long enough to heat the vegetables to your liking.           

For pizza crusts (click here for a dough recipe) I use individual pizza pans ( 7 inch pans with high edges; they look like little pie pans). I’ve been mixing Daisy (white) All-Purpose Flour with Daisy Whole Wheat Bread Flour to get the softness and the flakiness of the pastry flour that makes up half of our all-purpose flour. The whole wheat bread flour gives it a wonderful brown texture and color plus  the hearty, unique flavor of the bran and germ that is finely incorporated into the whole wheat version of each of our flours.  Try making your first batch with 2 cups of white all-purpose flour and 1 cup of whole wheat bread flour.  Then adjust the ratio to suit your tastes.

               
Bake the crust no more than 20 minutes in personal-sized pizza pans and stack them in the freezer. When you need a quick meal, fill the pre-baked crusts with those veggies that need to be used, leftovers, and herbs from the garden.  Here is my favorite stack:
Bottom layer:  Brush the dough with olive oil. Cover with browned ground Italian sausage and/or browned ground turkey or beef.  Coat the meat with a few tablespoons of pizza sauce or homemade tomato sauce or a white sauce. Layer with several thin slices of sweet summer onions.  If  you like, put in some optional layers of corn off the cob, mushrooms, sweet peppers or that handed-down zucchini.  At this point, I like to insert some very fine slivers of green jalapeno peppers and fresh garlic into the layers.  On top, place thick slices of fresh tomatoes. Cover them with fresh basil leaves and then sprinkle with grated or slivered parmesan cheese, feta or mozzarella.
               
Place in a warm oven (325-350 °) until warm through. It doesn’t take long. It’s also possible to heat it in the microwave. But keep a close eye on it or the dough will get mushy.

CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE FULL RECIPE - ALL AMERICAN DAISY PIZZA PIE