Homemade Pizza
Pizza: A Love Story (Literally)
Ahh, pizza. Is there anything more universally loved? I wonder how many relationships have started over a shared slice of first-class pizza. For my husband and me, pizza isn’t just a favorite food—it’s part of our story. In fact, it was our meal of choice on our wedding night! ❤️🍕
Now, if you’ve never made your own pizza, let me warn you: once you start, you might never want to buy one again. Okay… lol, that might be a bit of an exaggeration. As fun, easy, and delicious as homemade pizza is, there’s also something magical about letting someone else do the work.
Case in point: the pizza my husband and I enjoyed on our wedding night was delivered right to our hotel room door. And let me tell you, after a long, wonderful day of celebration, it was the perfect way to end the night.
Whether it’s homemade or delivered, pizza is more than just food—it’s comfort, connection, and sometimes even part of a love story. So grab your dough, your toppings, and maybe someone special, and make a little pizza magic of your own. ❤️✨
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.
