Pizza Pizza

For Oscar Sunday, we made pizza from scratch. It was awesome.

Baking bread has been on my food related goals list for a while, and Jeffrey loves pizza, so we decided Oscar night would be a fun time for homemade pizza. We crossed our fingers that it would turn out!

I looked at some favorite websites for dough recipes and instructions and our dough came out 100% perfect. It did take about 7 hours from start to finish, but there was a lot of down time for rising. Our dough made two pizzas, and we topped with a store-bought sauce (one thing at a time!) and lots of vegetables, sausage for Jeffrey, and mozzarella cheese.

Homemade Pizza Dough

Ingredients:

• 1 tsp white sugar
• 1 1/2 C warm water
• 1 packet active dry yeast
• 1 T olive oil
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 C whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 C all purpose white flour
• 1 T honey

Instructions:

(pay attention, there are a lot of steps!)

• In a large bowl, dissolve sugar into warm water. Sprinkle yeast on top and let stand for 10 minutes until foamy. (We did not stir it in. picture 1)
• Stir in the olive oil, honey and salt into the yeast mixture, and then mix in the whole wheat flour and 1 cup of the AP flour until the dough starts to come together. (picture 2)

• Spread the remaining flour onto countertop and plop the dough onto it. Knead until all flour is absorbed and the dough ball becomes smooth, about 10 minutes.
• To knead, you take the left side and fold it in, then the top and fold in and repeat over and over. Our dough was a little sticky, so we added more flour. It was fine. (picture 3)
• Place dough in an oiled bowl and turn to coat the surface. Cover loosely with a towel and let stand on countertop for 1 hour. We left ours out for about 3 hours. (picture 4)

• When the dough is doubled, tip the dough onto a floured surface and divide into two pieces for two crusts. Form into a tight ball and let rise for about 45 minutes, until doubled. We wrapped ours in saran wrap and placed in the refrigerator after one hour. (picture 5)
• When you’re ready to roll the dough, preheat oven to 450* and flour your surface again.
• With a rolling pin, roll out to desired shape. Ours were oval and it rolled easily without tearing. We did not do any pizza throwing in the air. We don’t have a pizza stone, so we placed each pie on a cooling rack so the bottom would cook well too. (picture 6)

• Drizzle top with olive oil and add toppings and sauce. Our choices included arugula, roasted garlic, artichokes, red bell pepper, sausage, red onion, basil, and mozzarella cheese.

Jeffrey’s pizza, pre-baking.

Marci’s pizza, pre-baking.

We baked for about 15 minutes or until it just looked ready. Next time, I would put the cooling rack on a baking sheet, or put a baking sheet on the bottom of the oven as a drip pan. We placed both pizzas on the top rack side by side for equal cooking. Jeffrey’s pizza had some leaky sauce that burned on the bottom of the oven.

Finished pizzas!

I love how the cheese browned so nicely and the arugula really wilted down. The onion strips cooked perfectly, and the cheese was perfectly melty.

Jeffrey’s pizza was super cheesy and spicy. I cut my cheese into strips and he used rounds. It made a difference in the cheesy-ness.

We cut into wedges and had lots leftover too. These two pies would be a perfect amount for 3 people probably.

If we have the time, I don’t think we’ll ever buy a store-bought crust again. The dough was crispy outside, doughy and soft inside. The wheat really stood out and the thickness was just perfect.

Making pizza together was a fun and messy project in the kitchen for a Sunday. You really realize that the dough is filled with love and hard work! We worked on that dough from noon until 7 p.m.!

Little Caesars has nothing on us. We can’t wait for the leftovers.

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