Pizza

What's your favorite kind of pizza? At my house we usually make pizza once a week. The dough is simple to make and it can be frozen. If you decide to make the dough and freeze it you just need to plan to pull it out with plenty of time for it to thaw and rise again.

Here's what you need to make Pizza Dough (click here for printable recipe)


1 package active dry yeast
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
3-4 cups flour
1 cup warm water
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1.) Don't be afraid of yeast it's no big deal. Just turn your faucet on to warm and let it heat up for a minute. Then get one cup of water and mix in the yeast until it's dissolved. Add the sugar to the yeast water and you should start to see some bubbles form. That's a good thing!

2.) Let the yeast hang out and bubble for a few minutes and in a separate bowl mix 2 cups of flour, salt and oil. This is a great time to add  herbs to the dough or any other seasoning you like. I sometimes use garlic powder and lately instead of regular salt I've been using Paula Deen's Silly Salt.

3.) Add the yeast mixture and beat until smooth. Stir in additional flour 1/2 cup at a time until the dough begins to form a ball and is easy to handle. Knead dough until it's smooth and elastic. I usually do all this with my KitchenAid. I know the dough is ready because the sides of the bowl are pretty much clean.

4.) Place the dough in a greased bowl or if you used a KitchenAid just drizzle a little olive oil all over the dough and turn it over to coat. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and a kitchen towel and let it rise in a warm spot until it's doubled in size. This can take up to an hour. I'll often turn my oven on and get it good and hot then turn it off and open the door so that the environment is warm and I let the dough rise on top of the oven.

5.) Preheat oven to 450 degrees and prepare your pizza stone by sprinkling it with cornmeal. If you don't have a pizza stone you need one! It really makes a difference in the crust. I don't preheat the stone but I know a lot of people do recommend it.




Whatever you do DON'T forget this step! If you forget the cornmeal you will have
 quite a time getting the pizza off the stone.

6.) Punch down your dough and roll it into a circle. Carefully place it onto the pizza stone. You can let it sit to rise a little more before you add toppings but at this point I usually can't wait any longer.

7.) Bake with toppings at 450 degrees for about 25 minutes or until crust is golden brown.





Wonder what we had on our pizza this week?
 Along with the usual tomato sauce and mozzarella we also added:
 steak, bacon, carmalized onions, mushrooms, and blue cheese. YES it's DIVINE!

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