Homemade Pizza
Ahh pizza - I wonder how many relationships have come together over first class pizza. I know pizza was the meal of choice for my husband and i on our wedding night :). But after you’ve made your own pizza, you may never buy one again. Okay…lol…that may be an exaggeration. As fun, easy and tasty as it is yo make your own pizza, it’s also fun to let someone else make the pizza. I can assure you that the pizza my husband and I enjoyed on our wedding night was delivered to our hotel room door ;).
Homemade Pizza Recipe
Special Note: Along the way, I’ve learned a lot of lessons about making bread, which is more science than art. A couple of those lessons is to make certain you are using ‘unexpired’ yeast. Yes - yeast expires and when it is expired, it won’t activate and rise the bread. The next is the temperature of the water. I first tried to do what I had seen my mom do, check the temperature of the water on her wrist. Well, my wrist is super unreliable. So, I bought a kitchen thermometer to make certain I had the ideal temperature of the liquids…too hot kills the yeast and too col won’t activate the yeast.
Ingredients:
1 tsp granulated sugar
1c warm water
1 pkg active dry yeast (or 1 tbsp)
2 tbsp olive oil
3c flour
1tsp salt
Pizza toppings: In the ones pictured I used sun dried tomatoe pesto as the base topped with sliced precooked new potatoes, thinly sliced yellow onion, medium yellow peppers, feta, drizzled with olive oil and topped with kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper. Once cooked, top with fresh chopped basil.
Instructions:
In bowl of mixer, dissolve sugar in warm water. Sprinkle in yeast; let stand for 10 minutes or until foamy.
Stir in olive oil.
Combine flour with salt; stir about half into yeast mixture.
Mix in enough of the remaining flour until dough can be gathered into slightly sticky ball. Knead with dough hook for about 5 minutes or until smooth and elastic.
Cut dough in half; cover and let rest 10 minutes.
On lightly floured surface, roll out each half into 12” circle.
Transfer pizza rounds to lightly greased or non-stick pizza pans. Let rest for at least 15 minutes - but the longer you let it sit, the thicker the crust will be…say 30 or 40 minutes. (I let mine sit on a heated counter, which helped the dough to rise.)
Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
Top your pizza with your desired toppings.
Bake about 15 - 18 minutes or until crust is golden brown and cheese is melted.
Remove from oven and transfer to cooling rack.
Makes 2 - 12” pizzas.
