Let's have Pizza!

When I was growing up, my mom often made pizza for us.  I was so proud of her for being so clever! She made pizza long before Dominoes or other chains that delivered were popular.  Now pizza is is one of our staple favorites at the cabin.  To make the dough, it's infinitely easier with a bread machine or stand mixer with bread hook. If you don't have either of these, maybe you should buy the crust unless you don't mind kneading by hand.

Here's what the crust looks like when it's all stretched into the pan.  To me this is the only hard part.  I've never been able to do the flippy thing with the dough that you see in commercials.  I just use a rolling pin and then stretch it by pulling and pushing it until it looks right.

 

Brooke taking the pizza out of the oven.  She had pneumonia this weekend (thus the nightie) but pizza can cure anything, right?



















This is a margarita pizza with fresh basil and goat's cheese.  You can use any toppings you want.  Remember, when you have a lot of toppings you'll need to cook it a little longer.








Crust for Two Pizzas
1 1/2 C water
2 Tbs. olive oil
1 Tbs. garlic, minced (optional)
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. Italian seasoning (optional)
4 Cups flour
1 Tbs. dry yeast

Put all ingredients into bread machine and put it on dough setting.  When it's finished, take it out a form into a ball with greased hands and then roll and stretch until it fits your pan.

Preheat oven to 450°

Toppings
Start with a good quality spaghetti sauce like Prego (or make your own!)
Sprinkle mozzarella or other cheese generously. About 2 cups per pizza.
Sprinkle oregano or Italian seasoning
Place all other toppings (pepperoni, peppers, onions, tomatoes, olives, onions etc.)

Bake at 450° for about 10 minutes.

ADDENDUM:
A couple of weeks ago we were up at the cabin and I started making pizza dough for our guests that were coming up.  I thought to myself, "Wouldn't it be funny if the bread-maker decided to stop working today when I have all these guests coming?"  Well guess what? It stopped working.  What I learned is that it's not that hard to make without the bread-maker.  I'll post a couple of pictures of how the dough looked before and after it rose.  I mixed it in a large bowl and kneaded it by hand, then put it in a barely warm oven to rise.