Pizza Night!

Tonight is pizza night in our house.  We try as often as possible to make all of our junk food from scratch, that way it's usually not quite *as* bad for you.  Also, the ever-picky toddler will ALWAYS scarf down a piece of pizza or cheesy bread, so pizza's on tap quite often over here.  It took us numerous attempts to get our pizza dough recipe "just so", so I thought I would share it here with the world.  It's a combination recipe/method from one of my kitchen "bibles", Dining On a Dime and my Mumma's own recipe for pizza dough.  Figured this would be a good sequel to the marinara post, since that's what we use for our pizza sauce!

Pizza & cheesy breadsticks

Here's what you'll need:
1 Cup warm water (120-degrees F)
1 Tbsp. white sugar
1 Tbsp. yeast
1 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp cooking oil
2-1/2 to 3 Cups flour
Optional:
2 tsp crushed garlic
1 tsp basil
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp oregano

Here's what you do:
Dissolve sugar into water; stir in yeast, and let stand 10 mins or til mixture doubles in volume. Add salt, oil, and spices if desired. Mix well. Gradually add flour to form stiff dough. Knead on well-floured surface 'til smooth. Place in a greased bowl and turn dough over so as to grease all sides in the bowl. Cover and let rise 'til doubled. (1/2 hr to hour)

Divide dough in half for two medium pizzas and roll out to about 1/4" thick. Fold and pinch edges up to form crust. Bake on sheet for 3-5 minutes at 350 to firm up a bit. Remove from oven, sauce lightly and top as desired. Bake again at 350 for 5 minutes, then broil 'til crust edges turn golden and cheese is nice and bubbly.

Beautiful Bacon/beef/pepper/onion pizza

Garlic fingers with bacon and feta, in the style of Fadi's Pizzeria (Fredericton NB)

And finally, here are a few tips for personalizing it:
- Cream cheese or strips of mozza can be folded into the crust to make a "stuffed crust" version that is always a hit with cheese lovers.
- When it comes to pizza sauce, I find less is more.  Not many people like to bite into a slice of fresh pizza, hit a pocket of sauce that's the temperature of molten-lava, only to burn their mouth and have it running down their face, amirite??  Start with slapping a tablespoon or two onto your crust and spread it thinly in a circular motion until your crust is lightly coated.
- Speaking of sauce, don't limit yourself to the tomato variety!  Try it out with BBQ sauce (with chicken and peppers), ranch dressing, pesto or cream cheese (paired with spicy toppings, it's a dream!).
- Get creative with the toppings! If you can dream it, it'll be good on your pizza. :)
- Pizza dough also makes for good "cheesy bread" or garlic fingers.  Instead of sauce, slather the crust with some garlic/herbed butter and top with cheese.  Slice into fingers, and serve with a dipping sauce.  Here's my favourite recipe for homemade donair sauce. 

Jalapeno popper pizza; cream cheese instead of sauce, bacon, jalapenos and green onions! 2DIE4!

As always, I want to hear if I've inspired you, and how it went! :)