Homemade pizza.

I've been making my own pizza for several months now. We eat tons of pizza. I craved it hardcore when I was pregnant with Jude and even after he was born the taste for it has not left me, I could eat it several times a week. But pizza can be expensive and unhealthy so it's probably a good idea to figure out a healthy medium. This recipe happens to be very economical as well.

I use a crust recipe that uses yeast. Most people I talk to about it say that they cannot get yeast recipes to work. It can work! You can make it work! I will walk you through it. It's sooooooo easy.

First, the recipe:

1 cup of very warm water
1 TB of sugar
2 1/4 tsp of active dry yeast
1/2 tsp of salt
3 TB of olive oil
2 1/4 cups of all purpose flour

In a mixing bowl, add your warm water and sugar and stir to dissolve. Once the sugar is dissolved, add the yeast and stir to dissolve. It will look something like this





Then you'll need to wait until it proofs. You see, yeast thrives in warm environments and feeds off of sugar. So when the yeast is in the warm sugar water long enough it will expand, it's gonna take a few minutes so be patient. I like to watch, because when it proofs it bursts to the top in little starbursts. It's pretty neat. It looks foamy on the surface and will smell sort of like beer. Like this





Next you'll add your salt and oil and stir to combine. THen add your flour and mix well until you have a big ball of dough in your bowl. It will be sticky- you don't have to touch it, no kneading necessary



Now set it on your preheated oven (350 degrees) and set a timer for 10 minutes and let it sit. Go check your facebook or your email or make a phone call. It'll be fine, just let it sit there.

Once that 10 minutes is up, it'll be a little bit bigger, puffier- but not too noticably so. Coat your hands in olive oil and pick up the dough out of the bowl and pat it out onto your pan.



Now it's ready to add toppings! You can use canned or jarred pizza sauce, but I make my own using these ingredients


It's very easy and very cheap. I always have Italian seasoning and garlic powder on hand, and a can of Great Value tomato sauce costs 64 cents. I think a can of pizza sauce costs a dollar so not a huge savings, but it saves me the trouble of having to buy specific pizza sauce, plus I make my own spaghetti sauce so if I just buy 4-5 cans of tomato sauce at a time, I use them in random meals throughout the week and if I'm having a blah day and just wanna make pizza for supper instead of actually cook, I don't have to run out for pizza sauce, I can just make it. See, easy.

I spread tomato sauce on the dough and then sprinkle generously with the seasonings. Then I add my mozzarella or whatever cheese I have on hand and pop it in the oven for ... oh probably 15 to 20 minutes. We don't like ours real brown or tough.



mmmmmmmm..... delish.


I keep all of those ingredients on hand all the time so making pizza can be spontaneous and last minute if I need it to be. I have to believe it's not as fattening as store bought or delivery, after all there are no pools of grease on the top. But bear in mind, we're talking white bread and mozzarella and whatever meaty topping you may desire so it can quickly get out of hand.



YUM.. Give it a try, you'll be pleased! And probably never spend money on delivery again!

Peace.

(p.s the recipe as written will only make one pizza, I always double it for my family.)