Thursday, January 22, 2009

Homemade Pizza

Tonight I conquered one of my cooking fears - homemade pizza. I've tried and failed a number of times (always ordering Dominos rather than make my family eat the horrendous pizzas I've made), but tonight I made edible and actually quite yummy pizzas!! I must thank Jenny for giving me her pizza dough recipe, I did end up tweeking the directions a little by making the dough in my KitchenAid and it turned out great! My kids even said they liked it better than delivery pizza and my 5 year old said that it was his favorite dinner ever. Nice. Well, now that I've tackled pizza I guess I must now move on to my other cooking fear creme brulee... Well, maybe conquering pizza hasn't made me quite that confident...


Homemade Pizza
(This recipe makes 2 large pizzas - my kids scarf pizza and my husband likes leftovers for work. You can certainly cut the recipe in half to just make 1.)

2 packets or 4 1/2 teaspoons yeast
2 cups warm water
5 3/4 cups flour (can add another 1/4 cup if dough is too sticky)
4 Tablespoons oil (I used Canola)
1 teaspoon salt


In the bowl of a KitchenAid dissolve yeast in water. Add flour, oil and salt and beat with the dough hook attachment for 4 1/2 to 5 minutes. Cover and let rest for 20 minutes.

Turn dough out onto a floured surface. Form into a ball and cut in equal halves. Roll out each half to the size of your pizza pans. (I got a little crazy and tried hand tossing them for a minute, but quickly realized that's going to take some serious practice.) Place rolled out dough circles on oiled pizza pans, cover with non-stick sprayed plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for 30 - 45 minutes, or until almost doubled in size.

Bake pizza crusts at 375 for 20 minutes ( I had to poke down a couple spots that were getting too high during the baking). Remove from oven and spread crust with pizza sauce and toppings (I used canned pizza sauce this time, shredded mozzarella, pepperoni, and grated Parmesan). Bake at 375 for 10 - 14 minutes, until cheese bubbles and crust is desired crispness.

1 comment:

Jenny said...

Glad my pizza dough recipe worked out for you! I occasionally also put some italian spices, like oregano, into the dough. I think it makes it taste just a little better.