Homemade Pizza--a few recipes

I love homemade pizza. It really is one of my favorite things to make. In high school I would often make pans of pizza for dinner on a whim and I loved it. My high school dough recipe, though, really wasn't my favorite and since then I've come across some recipes that I like better. Who knows, maybe I'll find one even better later on, but here goes:

Pizza Crust ala: Dixie (this is Heather Whitehead's Mother-in-law's recipe and it's awesome--probably my favorite right now) You can check it out on her recipe blog "It's So Tasty Too"

Ingredients
2 cups of warm milk
1 T sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 T oil
1 T yeast
4-5 cups of flour
(this makes a DOUBLE crust--if you just want one, make sure you half it all)

Directions
Check out Heather's write-up for the "real" way to do this, but this is how I do it. I put the yeast, salt and sugar in a big bowl and then heat up the milk (until it's warm enough--you just kind of know). Add that to the mixture and stir. Then add the oil, mix and then add the flour. I do all my mixing with a wooden spoon and then my hands. Knead it for about 5 minutes until all the flour is incorporated. Break it into 2 balls and then let rise for 10-20 minutes. Toss and roll until you get the shape you want. Pizza stones work great, but if you don't have that a round or rectangular pan works great took. Prebake the crust for 5-10 minutes at 425. Then take out and put on the toppings. Back until the cheese is light brown (usually 10-15 more minutes). And there you go--amazing pizza crust :)


Another Good Crust Recipe--This is the recipe I really liked until I found Dixie's. I still like this one and might play around with it a bit to try a wheat crust...hmmm...that would be good. But here it is--unchanged and still yummy.

Ingredients
2 T yeast
1 c. warm/hot water (I just kind of fell it and know)
2 T honey
1/4 c. olive oil
3 1/2 c. flour (you might need a bit more)

Directions
Use the same process as I outlined with the crust above and you should be good to go! Yum :) Oh...and if you have leftover dough--I like to make a few cinnamon rolls. The dough is actually a lot lighter and I kind of like them better for cinnamon rolls. If you don't have cinnamon, use brown sugar and butter. They are yummy!


And now for the sauce...
Now I know that you can use Ragu or some other pasta sauce, but I like to make mine. It tastes better and is really easy. So...here you go--go make your own sauce:

Ingredients
1 big can of crushed tomatoes
1 6 oz. can of tomato paste
Garlic
Italian Seasoning
Oregano
Any other good "Italian" seasoning you can think of

Directions
Put both cans of tomatoes into a saucepan and put it on medium heat. Add a bunch of diced garlic to it (you could also put the garlic in first and saute it if you want, but this is easier. Then add the seasonings. If you have an all-in-one Italian Seasoning, that's great, but you can put any other Italianish seasoning in it and stir it up. Just keep tasting it to see if you need more. Simmer it in the saucepan for 15 minutes and it will make enough for 2 pizzas. If you have extra sauce you can freeze it and use it later on pizza or I sometimes use it as pasta sauce. Yummers :) My sister-in-law Liesl with the homemade pizza we made together. Yummy!

I just love making pizza. It's a lot of fun and makes for a yummy meal. The best part is that you get to put on all your own toppings and can make it however you want--and in the amount of time it would take for delivery to arrive. So...go make pizza. It's yum!