Friday Pizza

Every Friday, we have Pizza. I know it sounds boring, but we all love it.

It is always homemade, and it is absolutely the best pizza -- yes, better than delivery, take-out, frozen, or gourmet.

First, sometime around 3:30 in the afternoon I make the dough. It takes roughly 2 minutes. Here is the recipe.

1 1/2 cups warm water
1 Tbs yeast (I always use the rapid rise, bread machine yeast)
1 Tbs sugar
2 Tbs vegetable oil
4 cups of flour (I often do slightly less -- like I just don't fill the 4th cup all the way since I know I will use 1/4 cup of flour when I roll out the dough)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp garlic powder (this is optional, but I nearly always add it)

Add those things in that order as fast as you can. I put it in my Kitchen aid with the dough hook and let it run for about 2 minutes. Then you leave it alone. I am sure you could remove the dough hook and let it rise in a nice separate bowl covered nicely with a pretty dish towel, but I never bother. I turn off the kitchenaid and leave it in there (dough hook and all) until it has risen double in size. (In a rush I have let it rise for as little as 20 minutes without noticing any change in result).

When you return, divide the dough in half and flour the countertop. Roll it out and place onto a pizza pan (sprayed with cooking spray). This recipe makes 2 large pizza crusts. As you can see from the photos, I doubled it.

Then top with sauce (I always use Prego traditional). Add cheese and other toppings. Bake at 475 until the crust is done. (About 12-15 minutes)

What kind of weird angle is that????

Now, I must share my quick tip.

Often, as soon as I finish rolling out one pizza crust, I place it in the oven to start baking. Then I roll out the next and place it in the oven. If I am only making 2 pizzas I let them cook while I clean up and get out all the toppings. If I am making 4 pizzas I just keep rolling the dough and putting them in the oven and by the time the 4th one goes in, I pull the 1st one out to get all of its toppings.

I don't let the crusts cook all the way, just until they start to change color (slighlty golden). Then you add the toppings and finish in the oven for only about 5 more minutes. It really helps you get pizza on the table fast. Also, many times I add the toppings to the cooked crust and then freeze the whole pizza to be used at a later date or I take it to someone and let them pop it in their oven for just 5 minutes and they can enjoy oven fresh homemade pizza!