Homemade Pizza!

And now for the moment we've all been waiting for...

HOMEMADE PIZZA!!!

My friends came over and we had a "girl night" making pizza! It was a blast! It was also super easy!

Here's what you do:

1. Make the dough. Have I mentioned that you should get a bread maker??? Well, you should! They. are. awesome!!! You just measure and pour the ingredients into the bread maker, set it to the "dough" setting, and then find something to do for about an hour and a half while it does all of the work! 

Ingredients:

- 3/4 teaspoon salt

- 4 cups all-purposed flour (I like to sub wheat flour for half of it)

- 2 teaspoons active dry yeast

- 1 and 3/8 cups water (the bread maker comes with a special measuring cup)

- 3 Tablespoons olive oil

Dough Prep Time: 1.5 hours

Add the ingredients, set your preferences, and press "start".

2. After the dough is ready, spread it out onto a greased pan or pizza stone, depending on your preferences. My husband worked at a pizza place in college, so he hand-tosses ours. I have a friend who rolls it with a rolling pin (be sure to have extra flour on hand to keep the dough from sticking to the roller). I stretch mine by hand. Any of these methods work. Try them all out and see which one(s) work(s) best for you.  Remember that the dough contains yeast, so it will rise. If you want a thinner crust, be sure to spread it out quite thin.

3. Aerate the dough with a "dough docker". This keeps the dough from bubbling. If you want a traditional crust around the edge of your pizza be sure to leave a half inch-1 inch around the perimeter when aerating it. 

4. Brush on the sauce according to your preferences. This comes with trial and error because you don't want it too dry or soggy. You can try all types of sauces: Tomato, BBQ, Buffalo, Alfredo, or even just plain Olive Oil.

5. Add the cheese. Start by placing a mound in the center and spread it outward. Add more as needed.

6. Add toppings. Be careful because certain toppings (ex. pineapple) can make the pizza soggy. Don't let this stop you from using them! Instead, practice blotting them with a paper towel to help remove excess juices before/after baking the pizza.

7. Sprinkle a dab more cheese over the top. The point of this isn't to get crazy with the cheese. It's supposed to help keep the toppings in place when the cheese melts.

8. Bake @ 425 degrees for 8 minutes. Check it. Rotate it. Bake another 8 minutes. Be careful to check it during the last 8 minutes. TIP: You can always add more time, but once it's overcooked you can't undo it. Because of this, if you have to add more time, add small increments (a minute or so at a time) and check it frequently.

Making homemade pizza might take a little bit of practice, but it's worth it!
Give it at least two tries: the first one to get your feet wet and to figure out what you could improve on, and the second to try it out with all of those adjustments.

ENJOY!

Up and coming:
- Homemade granola bars!
- Favorite afternoon snacks!
- Requests??? On the left side of my site you'll see a survey where you can vote for the types of recipes you'd like to see more of! I want to post what you want to read, so please take a moment to vote!