PIZZA PIZZA!!!

We loooooove pizza at our house! Paul and Gavin prefer Papa John's, while I tend to favor Pizza Hut. Really I think that Papa John's tastes better, but Pizza Hut is the only local place that offers stuffed crust pizza. Whoever came up with the idea of filling pizza crust with cheese is a genius! Despite our preferences, we often just go get our pizza from Little Caesars, since it is fast, easy and CHEAP!

A couple months ago, I asked Paul to pick up some flour from the store. He came back with a twenty pound bag! I took one look at that giant bag of flour and decided to accept the challenge. I went on a baking spree! Breads, dinner rolls, cinnamon rolls, cookies! You name it, I baked it. One of my most exciting successes was pizza crust. Since the first time we ate this homemade pizza, my hubby cannot fathom getting pizza from anywhere else! He has been asking for it for a few weeks now, so I decided to reward him tonight :)


The original recipe comes from http://www.favfamilyrecipes.com/homemade-pizza-dough.html and I am very glad we tried it!

It took us about three hours from starting the dough to stuffing our faces, but we tend to take our time creating masterpieces. If you put the sauce, cheese and toppings on quickly it could definitely be completed in a little over two hours.

To begin, you must let the yeast sit in warm water with two tablespoons of sugar for 5 minutes.

While that sits, put 3 3/4 cups of flour and a tablespoon of salt into a mixing bowl.

Add 3 tablespoons of EVOO to your yeast mixture, then pour the whole thing into your mixer. Let the mixer run on low for 10 minutes. Then put the dough into a greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let it rise for an hour.

After the hour is up, punch down the dough then separate into two or three sections. Make those into balls and brush lightly with olive oil. Recover with plastic wrap and allow to rise for an additional 45 minutes.

While the dough rises for the second time I like to prep all of our pizza making supplies. I shred a hunk of mozzarella cheese which melts better than pre-shredded cheese. Normally I buy pizza sauce, but tonight I realized that all I had was spaghetti sauce, so I spruced that up with a little oregano and garlic powder. Paul prepped the barbecue sauce for his BBQ chicken pizza. Then we preheated the oven,

Next comes the fun stuff! Starting with dough spreading. I think the best technique is to use your fingers to lightly press the dough outward until it gets to your desired size. Paul is dying to figure out how to throw pizza dough, but he's still working on figuring that out :)

Gavin makes his pizza a regular crust with pizza sauce, cheese and pepperoni.

Paul makes a thin crust BBQ chicken pizza. He mixes in water and seasonings (I'm not sure which ones, but if anyone wants to know I can ask him) then whisks it until he gets a good consistency. The chicken we have used so far has been canned, but I would love to make him some fresh chicken next time to see if he likes that better.

I stick to my favorite, stuffed crust! I use 6 pieces of string cheese in the crust, then make a typical pepperoni pizza.

Next it is into the oven for approximately 10 minutes. All of our pizzas cook slightly differently because of our different choices in crust and toppings, so it is good to keep an eye on them while they bake. Here is the before and after of all of our pizzas.

Last but certainly not least, it is time to dig in!!! This time the crust wasn't as crispy as Paul or I would like it, but Gavin thought it was perfect. I plan to look up some ideas on getting a crispier crust for next time :)

Also, Ms. Olivia was not amused that she was stuck eating mixed veggies while we were eating pizza! It was so good, in fact, that our dog managed to pull half of a pizza off the counter and devour it before we could stop him! Maybe next should be a post on dog training?

The recipe is included below, enjoy!

              

Homemade Pizza Dough

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cup warm water
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 packet of active dry yeast
• 3 3/4 cups flour
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Directions

1. Add sugar and yeast to warm water in a small bowl or mixing cup. Let sit 5 minutes.
2. Mix flour and salt together in the bowl of a mixer. Use your dough hook attachment.
3. Add oil to yeast mixture. Pour yeast mixture into the bowl with flour/salt and run at low speed for 10 minutes.
4. Place dough in a lightly oiled bowl, turning to cover. Put plastic wrap over the bowl and let it rise for an hour in a warm spot.
5. After the hour has passed, punch down the dough and divide into 2 or 3 pieces. Shape into balls then lightly brush with olive oil and recover with plastic wrap.
6. Let it rise for an additional 45 minutes.
7. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
8. Lightly grease pizza pan, then spread pizza dough out gently. Leave the outer edge thicker for regular crust. Leave the entire thing thin for thin crust. For stuffed crust pizza, line the edge with string cheese then wrap the edge of the dough around it.
9. Top with your favorite pizza toppings.
10. Bake for 10-15 minutes until the edges are golden brown.
11. EAT UP!!!