Jennifer Garner Started Making This Recipe ‘Years Ago’ and Now It’s Her ‘Family’s Top Request’
Jennifer Garner is making her love of pizza very well known.
Although the actress has experimented with many pizza dough recipes like those from Cooks Illustrated and goop founder Gwenyth Paltrow, she has a tried-and-true recipe she uses when she’s making a pie for the whole family.
“I’m a big fan of homemade pizza,” the Love, Simon star wrote on Instagram, “made in the oven, on the grill, or waiting in the freezer for just the right moment—I mean, who isn’t?”
In lieu of a traditional video for her “Pretend Cooking Show,” Garner—who is mom to her kids Violet, 12, Seraphina, 9, and Samuel, 6, with ex Ben Affleck—shared a series of step-by-step photos of herself making the dough from Mel’s Kitchen Cafe, a cooking blog written by a mom of five kids.
Garner uses the recipe traditionally for homemade pizzas but she has also created her own hack for the recipe, which she started making “years ago.” She rolls out extra dough, brushes it with olive oil, and sprinkles it with crushed dry thyme, rosemary and “a good dose of salt.”
“My family’s favorite bread was born,” Garner wrote of the snack. “The kids call it #pizzacracker and it is my family’s top request.”
Want to whip up Garner’s pizza crackers for yourself? See the full recipe below.
Mel’s Kitchen Cafe’s Foolproof Pizza Dough
1 cup warm water
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon oil
1 tablespoon instant yeast
2-3 cups flour (any combination of bread, all purpose, whole wheat)
1 teaspoon salt
For the top— sprinkle of olive oil, big dash of salt, dried rosemary and thyme
1. In a large bowl or in the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, mix the water, honey, oil, yeast and salt. Add the flour gradually until a soft dough forms and pulls away from the sides of the bowl. The exact flour amount will vary so go by the touch and feel of the dough versus the exact cup measurements in the recipe. The dough should be soft and smooth (but if I have to pick, I’d choose slightly sticky over stiff).
2. Knead the dough for 2-3 minutes (more like 5-6 minutes if kneading by hand or if using whole wheat flour).
3. Let the dough rest, covered, for 10 minutes.
4. Pinch off a chunk of dough the size of your fist and stretch or roll it as thin as possible. It has to be thin to bubble, and the oven has to be HOT!
5. Bake at 475 or 500 degrees on a preheated pizza stone or on a lightly greased baking sheet for 8-10 minutes. Keep an eye, because once it starts to bubble and brown it can be done in an instant.
6. Use leftover dough to make pizzas….
7. Yum
