Christmas Notebook

Making pizza dough is so easy that we have long since given up store-bought, delivery and take-out pizza. Store bought pizza seems so very salty to us, too, so we are glad to give it up for home made. Give this a try. It’s easy and delicious! The recipe can easily be doubled if you’re making two large pizzas.

Pizza

1 c. warm water (Warm tap water is fine. If it’s too hot to put your *clean* finger in, it’s too hot to put your live yeast in.)
1 tsp. yeast
2 T. sugar
1 tsp. salt
2 T. olive oil
3 c. flour (We use bread flour, but all-purpose flour is fine, if that’s what you have on hand.)

Preheat the oven to 400*.

This is too easy. Put all the dough ingredients into a mixer bowl. Use the dough hook and mix on low until the flour is incorporated. Continue to mix on low for six minutes until dough is smooth and elastic. Remove the dough hook. Leave the dough in the bowl. Cover with a cloth and allow to rise for an hour or so. Sometimes we make the dough at lunch time, then use it at supper time. It does just fine on the counter.

If you don’t have a mixer with a dough hook, mix the ingredients with a wooden spoon until the flour is incorporated. Knead by hand until smooth and elastic. About six to eight minutes. Place in an oiled bowl, cover and allow to rise.

Oil a large cookie sheet or a large round pizza pan. Spread the dough to the edges. If it springs back, let it rest five minutes and spread again.

Cover the dough with tomato sauce, spaghetti sauce, pizza sauce…whatever you have on hand. I use plain tomato sauce or crushed tomatoes.

Sprinkle on your favorite spices…basil, oregano, marjoram, parsley, garlic powder,…whatever. We use basil and oregano.

Top with your favorites. We like sausage (cook and crumble before adding to the pizza) and mushroom. And we like our mushrooms chunky.

I cook the sausage, then add the diced mushrooms and sauté them with the sausage until they just begin to brown.

Grate your own cheese if you have a food processor. SO easy and the cheese is much tastier and won’t have the additives that store-bought shredded cheese has in it. I use a mixture of mozzarella cheese and Parmesan cheese. Use whatever you like on your pizza. Lots of opportunity for creativity here!

I’ve made pizza three times in the past few weeks, meaning to take pictures, and each time I forgot to take a picture of the pizza with the cheese before baking. So you’ll have to use your imagination now. I’ll wait while you conjure that image…….OK, moving on…

Bake the pizza, in a 400* preheated oven, for 18 minutes. Lift the corner and check the bottom of the crust. If it hasn’t browned, bake a few more minutes until the bottom of the crust is a lovely brown.

Enjoy! Leftovers can be reheated and enjoyed for lunch the next day. Ask me how I know.

~~Rhonda 🙂