MISSOURI PIZZA RECIPES

Steps:

• In a large bowl, whisk flour, baking powder and salt. Stir in water and oil until combined. Turn onto a lightly floured surface. Gently form into a ball. Cover and let rest 10 minutes. Divide dough in half. On parchment, roll each half into a 10-in. circle. Transfer (leaving dough on parchment) to a 12-in. pizza pan. , Preheat oven to 425°. Combine crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, sugar, basil and oregano; spread over pizzas. Top with pepperoni, green pepper, onion and cheese. If desired, sprinkle with additional dried basil and oregano. Bake on a low oven rack, 1 at a time, until bottom of crust is golden and cheese is lightly browned, 15-20 minutes. Cut into squares.

Steps:

• Crust: Mix until thoroughly combined - Dough will be very stiff. makes enough for two (2) 12" pizza pies. The dough is ready to use "as-is" No need to rise or kneed. Divide the dough in half, shape into a round ball and roll out paper thin.
• In order to move the crusts around a pizza peel sprinkled with cornmeal works well.
• After the crust, it's the sauce that begins the first real steps towards forming the total Imo's pizza experience. Imos uses a tomato sauce mixture that has a sweet taste, but it's not so overly sweet to hide the rich tomato flavor or spices.
• Sauce:Combine together and it's ready to use - do not pre-cook the sauce! This Makes enough sauce for about four (4) 12" pizza pies, so that should give you some idea of how much to use on each pizza.
• On top of the sweet sauce Imo's uses Provel Cheese, which is simply a blend of Cheddar, Swiss and Provolone cheeses with some liquid smoke flavoring. If you can't find Provel in your local market, it can be easily created.
• Cheese:Toss until cheeses and smoke flavoring are completely incorporated. Typically it's enough cheese for two (2) 12" pizza pies, but if you like extra-cheese you'll want to make more.
• Authentic Imo's pizza toppings include: Extra-Cheese, Onion, Green Pepper, Sausage, Hamburger, Pepperoni, Anchovy, Bacon, Black Olive, Mushroom, Canadian Bacon, Jalapenos, Pineapple, Banana Peppers, and Tomatoes.
• In a professional pizza oven the meat toppings (Hamburger, Sausage, Bacon, etc.) can usually be put on raw, but at home you'll want to fully precook the meat before assembling the pizza.
• Now you have the correct style crust, sweet sauce, smoky cheese, generous toppings, it's now ready to be lightly sprinkled with some Italian seasonings.
• Seasonings: Combine all the ingredients in a small mixing bowl and blend well.
• While in the restaurant the pizza is baked in a pizza pan, at home you'll have the best results using a pizza stone and an oven temperature around 450 degrees. If you don't have a pizza stone, use the thinnest baking sheet you have and the lowest over rack position. The pizza is done when the underside of the crust is a dark golden brown, and the cheese is has a slight golden tint to it. Underbaking the crust will result in a limp crust, overbaking will result in a hard, tough, burnt-tasting crust, getting the right baking time to produce a crisp crust will require a bit of experimentation. The amount and type of toppings you use will also affect the total baking time. A rule-of-thumb is to check the pizza after about 10-12 minutes and adjust baking time from there accordingly.
• And, as a final touch to truly replicate Imo's Pizza at home, is to cut the pizza into tile-like squares instead of the traditional triangle slices.