Homemade Pizza

This is a common dinner I had growing up. It’s fast, It’s easy and totally customizable for even the bratty little kids that hate every food or our friend that’s just a picky eater.

I used this pizza dough recipe because it’s fast (under 2 hrs including rising time). Although, if you have the time to plan ahead, I would recommend this one, because it gives you the type of dough that has lots of elasticity and can be tossed into a very thin crust.

The second recipe is from Alton Brown’s show Good Eats, which normally has some awesome recipes for basic foods. This brownie recipe with semi sweet chocolate chunks added is fantastic.

Here’s my rendition of the quicker pizza dough:

Ingredients

2 cups white all-purpose flour (I also had to add in 7 tablespoons extra during the mixing/kneading because the dough was sticky, due to that addition I might say go for 2 1/2 cups white flour and add on a tablespoon or so of water.)

2 cups whole wheat flour (Why not make it a bit more nutritionally beneficial? But, if you’re not on the flower-child, granola-y, healthy Boulder bandwagon you can just use all white flour)

1 teaspoon sugar

1 envelope active dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)

2 teaspoons kosher salt

1 1/2 cups warm water

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, plus 2 teaspoons for the rising bowl

 

Combine the flours, sugar, yeast and kosher salt in the bowl of a stand mixer and combine.

While the mixer is running, add the water and 2 tablespoons of the oil and beat until the dough forms into a ball. This is where I had to add my extra flour. Knead until the dough is a smooth, firm ball. I just used my Kitchen Aid mixer with the dough hook attachment to knead the dough for the ease of it.

Grease a large bowl with the remaining 2 teaspoons olive oil, add the dough, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and put it in a warm area to let it double in size, about 1 hour.

 

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and divide it into 2 equal pieces. Cover each with a clean kitchen towel or plastic wrap and let them rest for 10 minutes.

Now you can shape the dough into the size and shape crusts you like.

You can cook the pizza in the oven at 450 or 500 degrees Fahrenheit until the crust looks cooked (and the cheese, if that is one of your toppings, is melted) mine took about 8 minutes at 500 degrees Fahrenheit.

You can also cook the pizzas on the grill, to do it this way it’s best to shape the dough and cook the crusts on the grill for about 1.5 mins. add the toppings to the side with grill marks and then put the pizzas back on the grill under a careful eye for about 1.5 or 2 mins. This was my mom’s preferred method when we were growing up because we normally had these pizzas in the summer and since our house doesn’t have AC, the grill was a great way to cook without heating up the house with the oven.

Here’s my pizza loaded up prior to cooking. I put red sauce on it and topped it with artichoke hearts, stuffed green olives, herb crusted salami, fresh mozzarella, red onions, grape tomatoes, a sprinkle of fresh rosemary from the garden, parmesan, and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar.

And the finished product…

with a Fat Tire of course! Yum!