Recipe Day - Pizza

I made pizza last night for dinner.  I figured since it was actually light enough, I would take some pictures and share my thoughts on making homemade pizza.
First, the dough.  I use my bread machine to make a yeast dough.
1 Cup plus 2 TBS water
2 TBS Olive Oil
3 Cups of Flour
2 TBS Sugar
1 tsp Salt
2 1/4 tsp yeast (or one packet)

Put all these things in the machine and make dough.  Now, I think there are a zillion ways to change up the dough.  Add cornmeal.  Add flax seed.  Replace one cup of white flour with whole wheat.  Use honey instead of sugar.  Add herbs like oregano, basil, thyme.  Add garlic, fresh or powdered.  Add Parmesan cheese.  The list goes on....

Once your dough is done - roll it out, or just push with your fingers, on a cookie sheet, or pizza stone.  I prefer a stone.

I'm pretty sure we've never had the same pizza twice.  This is what I had in the house yesterday: Mushrooms, onions, chopped garlic, black olives, and sweet peppers.

And some ground pork with Italian Sausage Seasoning

Smear on your favorite pizza sauce.

I have no idea why these last two are blurry.

Add your toppings.

Now let's talk cheese.  Have you ever made pizza or lasagna and the shredded cheese doesn't really melt, and still looks like shredded cheese?  That's because of the 'anti-caking' extras they add to shredded cheese.  The answer.  Block cheese.  Now you can totally shred it at home, if you prefer.

Or go the lazy route and just slice it, like I do.  It works great.

Just lay your slices out on the pizza.

Sprinkle liberally with oregano.  Cook at 400 for about 20 minutes.

Slice and serve.  Actually, you should really let it sit for at least 5 minutes, it makes the cutting easier.

 

 Yum.  Thanks for reading!