Homemade Pizza

Pizza is one of my favorite foods, there are so many different combinations of toppings, you can have something different every time. I have always wanted to try making pizza, and last night I finally got the courage to dig up a recipe. I found the recipe for the dough on a blog called Annie's Eats through a Google search. I am saving the blog to my favorites because there are a few more of her recipes I want to try. 

Homemade Pizza Dough.

1/2 cup warm water.

2 + 1/4 tsp instant yeast.

4 cups flour, plus more for dusting.

1 + 1/2 tsp salt.

1 + 1/4 cup room temperature water.

2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil.

Dissolve yeast into 1/2 cup water. In bowl of mixer, combine flour and salt. After yeast has activated, add mixture to 1 + 1/4 cup water and oil. Stir in mixer until just combined. Add dough hook and let knead for 5 minutes. 

Put into oiled bowl, flip to coat. Cover and let rise in warm place until doubled, about an hour and a half to two hours. 

Deflate dough and divide into two. Work each into a smooth ball on a floured surface, At this point, the dough can be frozen by wrapping in plastic and then putting into a freezer bag. Cover dough that is being used with a damp cloth and let sit 10 minutes to relax. 

To bake, preheat oven and stone to 500 F. Sprinkle working surface with cornmeal, shape dough and add sauce and toppings as desired. Transfer shaped pizza to stone in oven and bake 8 to 12 minutes, until dough is brown and cheese bubbly. 

It is not the most beautiful looking pizza, but it is delicious! I started the dough around twenty after ten. It was ready to sit by 10:30. I found it a bit sticky, but it did not take a lot f extra flour to make it workable. It did not take the full two hours to raise, in fact it was ready by about 11:45. Maybe because I sat it in the sun? :-)

While it did its thing, i cleaned up and prepped my toppings: salami, turkey bacon, green peppers, red onion and a hotdog. 

I also grated some cheese and made a sauce. Last Friday I had made tomato sauce in my crock-pot, so I took a bit of that and added more parsley, oregano and some Italian spice mix. I let it simmer on low for about 10 minutes to let it all blend. 

Finally, it was time to put it all together. I spread it out on some parchment on a cutting board (parchment was a hint by Annie). Added the sauce, a sprinkle of Parmesan and the toppings.

I put the hot dog on top of the cheese since it was the only meat that was not pre-cooked. 

While I was topping it, I pre-heated my oven. Even though the recipe stated 500 F, the instructions with my pizza stone said 450 F. I did not want to risk over heating it, so I went with that temperature. Fifteen delicious smelling minutes later, I had pizza!

The only thing I will change for next time is maybe giving the crust a bit of garlic butter, I found it very doughy.  But then, next time I may get the crust a bit more even, which would eliminate that. It turned out delicious, and I am definitely going to make it again. I still have one dough ball left (in the freezer) so it most likely will be this weekend! 

Hope everyone is having a great week, it is half over already!