Homemade pepperoni, homemade italian sausage pizza.

The pepperoni Italian sausage I made were good on their own, but they were made for a pizza!  On Friday I started the process by making my pizza dough.  It consists of...

100 ml beer (I had Sam Adams Boston Lager on hand, so that's what I used) 
250 ml cold water (Beer + water come to about 70% hydration in this formula)
2 - 3 grams instant dry yeast (IDY) (about 0.4% to 0.6% flour weight)
500 - 550 grams bread flour (I used Weisenberger Mills high gluten bread flour)
10 grams salt (2% flour weight)
10 grams extra virgin olive oil (again, 2% flour weight)

The beer and water are added to a mixing bowl and the IDY sprinkled over.  Then the flour goes in followed by the salt.  This is allowed to sit until you see cracks forming in the flour, which means the yeast has started producing carbon dioxide.  The dough is mixed for 2 minutes, then the mixer stopped and the oil added.  Next the half-mixed dough is allowed to sit for 15 - 20 minutes, this is called the autolyse phase.  During this step the flour absorbs all the water and the proteins that will form gluten hydrate, the end result is a shorter mix time and better flavor wheaty in the final crust.  After the autolyse the dough is mixed until it forms a smooth, elastic mass.  The dough is then balled, coated with oil, covered in plastic wrap and allowed to slowly ferment in the refrigerator for at least 24 hours to develop the desired flavor and texture.

The next day I removed a portion of the dough for one crust and allowed it to come to room temperature.  The oven (with pizza stone inside) was heated to 550 degrees for one hour prior to baking.  Once the dough was warmed up I started stretching out the skin until it was about 12 inches in diameter with the nice lip you only get from hand stretching and tossing.  The skin was placed on a piece of parchment and dressed with a simple pizza sauce (canned tomatoes, tomato paste, red wine, olive oil, oregano, salt and pepper) followed by some store bought cheese (four cheese blend by Lucrene), the Italian sausage (cooked) and pepperoni.  The pizza, still on the parchment paper, was slid on the the stone and allowed to cook for about 6-7 minutes until the crust was set.  Then the parchment was removed and the pizza allowed to complete cooking directly on the stone.  Once removed from the oven, a little extra virgin olive oil was drizzled on the pie, since the homemade pepperoni and sausage were pretty low in their own fat.  This is the result...

I was very pleased with both the pizza and the toppings.  The pepperoni, which was fairly dry and firm when eaten by itself, seemed to soften when cooked on the pizza.  This is also my go-to formula for crust, it has a nice yeasty flavor and good texture with lots of large holes inside the lip.  Great for dipping in garlic butter or ranch dressing.  Making the pepperoni and sausage at home may have taken a little extra time, but it was worth it in the end!