Our Favorite Homemade Pizza

In this house we LOVE pizza. While my boys would be fine with frozen pizza 3 nights a week, I prefer the really good, thick & crisp, gooey, meatiness of a pizzeria pie. Unfortunately my pizza of choice gets EXPENSIVE! At $16-20 for a large pizza (which, we admittedly need 2 of those for our family of 4!), we can't afford to treat ourselves to those near as often as we would like. So, we did the next best thing....we found a crust we love & now we make it at home! 

I really can't remember where this crust originated from. My FIL made it for me once & I was in love with it!  Sorry I don't have a site to reference, but I will post the recipe below :)

This is what the crust looks like when you roll it out. This recipe will make either 2 round stones, or 1 round & 1 jelly roll pan. I love pampered chef pans for my pizza, but only once they are good & seasoned. Once you roll out your dough, gently lift it & sprinkle yellow corn meal under the dough on the pan, this will help the crust crisp up well. I also drizzle Olive Oil & Oregano on the raw crust and rub it in really well. 

I then bake the crust only for 5 minutes or so to get it started. 

Once you remove it, lather on your favorite sauce, toppings & cheese. I always season the raw pizza with Salt & Pepper to give it that wonderful flavor. Your pizza will need to bake for anywhere from 15-30 minutes depending on how many toppings, how much cheese, how well you like your crust done. Remember to rotate it between the top rack & the bottom rack to evenly cook the crust & cheese of the pizza :)

Does it seriously even get any better than this? Oh man, we absolutely LOVE this pizza :) And our whole family gets into it. Once I have the crusts prepared the boys top the pizza (Jason is a master at this!). Our favorite toppings are Pepperoni, Ham, Sausage, Bacon Bits, Mushrooms, Onions & Green Peppers.

Now, don't be scared by the recipe for the crust...it might look intimidating at first, but I promise...it's EASY!

Pizza Crust

• 2 & 1/4 tsp yeast
• 1/2 tsp brown sugar
• 1 & 1/2 cups warm water (110 degrees)
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 3 & 1/3 cup of flour...plus up to a cup more for sticky dough

1. In a saucepan, warm water. (measure the temp to 110 degrees...this is actually really important for proper rising) 
2. Dissolve yeast & brown sugar in warm water (in a separate bowl, not your saucepan) and let sit for 10 minutes. 
3. Stir the salt & oil into the yeast solution. 
4. Place 2 & 1/3 cups of flour into the bowl of your stand mixer (or you can mix it by hand if your really ambitious!), and pour in the liquid mixture. Mix on low until it begins coming together. Place remaining 1 cup of measured flour into mixer & continue combining the ingredients. **this is where I add to the recipe...my dough is always WAY to sticky, so I usually add in another 1/2 to 1 cup of flour at this point. Your dough has to be workable without sticking to your hands!
5. Turn dough onto lightly floured surface and coat with a light dusting of flour. 
6. Coat a LARGE mixing bowl with Crisco liberally (I don't even mess with generic shortening... Crisco all the way!), then place your ball of dough in the bowl & turn once or twice to coat with some shortening. Cover bowl tightly with plastic wrap and let rise 1 hour, your dough will just about double in size. 
7. Punch down dough and separate into 2 balls. 
8. Lightly flour pizza pans & begin rolling out dough. 
9. Follow directions above for making pizza!

If you try this pizza, I would love to hear from you! It's my absolute favorite! Well worth the time to make the dough :)

Love & Hugs, 

Jenny