Home Made Pizza

As many of you know by now, I love baking, cooking and canning.  I make the majority of my meals and desserts from scratch.  It's very satisfying to me to make healthy home made food.  I used my home made Spaghetti Sauce which is list here on my blog. My two grand kids, Annalise 16 and my grandson Caleb 6 both helped me, they love to help. I feel it's good to teach children how to cook and spending time with each other and away from electronics and the television makes for great bonding time and conversations.  It was the perfect day for doing this, it was chilly and raining. We had the fireplaces lit, there's nothing better than the smell of burning wood and hearing the wood popping.  The music was turned up and we were singing and dancing barefoot in my kitchen. I'm hoping that I'm making great memories for them at Granny K, AKA: K's house.  That's what the grand kids call me.  I'm the youngest of the gramma's, it originally started as a joke and the name just seemed to stick.  When my 4-kids were young, I did the same with them, and we still continue this tradition on the holidays and get-to-gethers. We all congregate in the kitchen, cooking, baking, laughing, dancing or singing.  Life is good.

  Caleb with McKenna on the left and Capone on the right.

Note: Makes 2-Pizzas

Home Made Pizza Dough Freezer-Friendly

Ingredients:

2-Cups warm water **105-115-degrees Fahrenheit, use a Candy Thermometer**

2-Tablespoons Active Dry Yeast

2-Teaspoons Sugar

2-Teaspoons Salt

4-Tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil

5-Cups Unbleached All-Purpose Flour. *Some times I use Wheat or do a 50/50 of both* Plus some extra for the Cutting Board

Corn Meal

Toppings:

Ground Beef rolled into little meat balls. I don't season these.

Pepperoni Sliced

Mushrooms Sliced

Red and Green Peppers cut into diced pieces

Onions Sliced

Mozzarella Cheese Grated
My Spaghetti Sauce or Jar store purchased is fine

What You Will Need:

Measuring Cup

Measuring Spoons

Pizza Stone if you have one, if not, a large baking sheet will work. 

Stand Mixer with a Bread Hook. Or you can use your hands.

Zip Lock Freezer Bag

Wood Cutting Board

Dough Cutter or Sharp Knife

Candy Thermometer

Large Mixing Bowl. 2 if you don't have a stand mixer.

Wooden Spoon

Plastic Wrap

Rolling pin

Oven Mitts

Pizza Wheel Cutter or Sharp Knife

Large Spatula

Ladle

**Place your Pizza Stone in to your cold oven on the bottom rack, turn on to 450-degrees Fahrenheit** (I remove the other racks, it's easier to maneuver the hot Pizza Stone later)

Directions On How To Make The Dough:

Pour the warm water into the large bowl, make sure that the temperature is correct by using the candy thermometer. Sprinkle the yeast into the bowl and stir with the wooden spoon until well dissolved, set aside. Add all of the dry ingredients above, as well as the Extra Virgin Olive Oil, into the stand mixer using the bread hook attachment. Now, add in a little of the yeast mixture, mix on low-speed to start.  Gradually keep adding in the wet mixture to the dry increasing the speed to medium. Continue doing this until all of the wet is well incorporated into the dry. If the dough is sticky, add in some more flour, keep mixing on medium-speed.  You want the dough to be firm, not stiff and no longer sticky to the touch.  

Using the wooden cutting board, sprinkle some flour all over the top of it, not too thick. Remove the  dough from the mixing bowl and place on the flour dusted wooden cutting board.  Knead the dough with your hands for 2-5-minutes until it becomes smooth and not lumpy.  If it's still lumpy, add a little more flour to the cutting board and continue kneading. When the dough is at the right consistency it will actually have a little bit of a sheen to it.  Now roll the dough into a ball. Using your Dough Cutter, cut into 4-equal sections and roll in to balls.  You can either use all 4 to make 4-pizzas or freeze half and use at a later date, I chose to freeze half. Take each dough ball and wrap in plastic wrap, then put them in the Zip Lock Freezer Bag,  I also put the date on the bag so I know when I had made them. 

The dough balls that you didn't freeze, using your Rolling Pin, roll out onto the wooden cutting board with a little flour spread on the top surface.  Keep rolling out until you have an even disc. Once you have it rolled out in to the disc, sprinkle some of the corn meal on top of the dough and spread all around the dough evenly.  The corn meal helps prevent the pizza from burning and sticking to the Pizza Stone. Now here's where you have to be careful because I don't have a Pizza Paddle, if you do that's great use it.  Putting on your Oven Mitts, carefully remove the stone from the oven and place on a heat resistant surface.  Remove your Oven Mitts and flip the corn meal dusted side of the dough down on to the top of the hot Pizza Stone. BE VERY CAREFUL!!  If the dough isn't placed completely evenly on top of the Pizza Stone, don't worry about it. 

Now ladle the sauce onto the dough until it is completely covering the dough disc.  Add your topping over top of the sauce leaving the Mozzarella Cheese for last.  You can use what ever toppings you like and add as much as you like or don't like. We had made one with everything that is listed above and one that was a meat-lovers, just the sauce meatballs, pepperoni and cheese.  

Put your Oven Mitts back on and place the Pizza Stone back in to the hot oven, be very careful. Bake for about 10-minutes or until the crust looks light brown and is crispy.  When it's done, remove the hot Pizza Stone with your Oven Mitts, place on a heat-resistant surface and let cool for about 5-10 minutes or so.  Using a knife or Pizza Wheel Cutter, cut into equal pieces, remove with the spatula and serve.

How To Use The Frozen Dough:
Take the dough out of the freezer. In a large bowl, put some Extra Virgin Olive Oil on a paper towel and rub the sides and bottom of the bowl. Remove the dough from the freezer bag and place in to the greased bowl.  Cover with a linen dish towel and let thaw at room temperature for at least 4-hours or until completely thawed and you can handle it.  Roll the dough out on to a floured wooden Cutting Board, into a disc and follow the above instructions.