Homemade Pizza

Making homemade pizza is one of my favorites. You can use this recipe to make 2 medium sized, or one large pizza.

What you need

2 1/2 - 3 c Flour (try mixing half whole wheat with half all purpose)

1 T Sugar

1 t Salt

1 package yeast (or if you buy in bulk, which is MUCH cheaper, then use 2 1/4 tsp.)

3 T Olive oil

1 cup hot water

Mix 1 c of flour with sugar, salt, and yeast in large mixing bowl. Add 3 tablespoons oil and hot water (hot enough that it feels really warm, but not scalding hot). Beat with electric mixer on medium speed for 3 minutes. Stir enough remaining flour into dough to make it soft and less sticky. Knead for 5-8 minutes (The recipe says to do this on the counter, but I like to knead in the bowl so you have half the mess to clean up! Add enough flour to the dough while you are kneading it so that it doesn't stick to your hands, but try to to add too much. Adding too much flour will give you a harder, more dense end product. The less flour you add and the more time you let it rise, the fluffier your end product.) Remove dough, grease inside of bowl, replace dough, cover with dish towel or loose serane wrap and let rise at least 30 minutes.

For thin crust preheat oven to 425 degrees, grease 2 cookie sheets, dived dough in half, and roll out dough into each cookie sheet (you can make it into round pizzas, or roll dough out to fill the entire cookie sheet). Bake for 7-8 minutes, remove from oven top with your choice of toppings, and bake for additional 8-10 minutes.

For thick crust preheat oven to 375 degrees, grease one cookie sheet, and roll out dough to fill the entire cookie sheet. Cover loosely and let rise an additional 30-40 minutes. Bake for 20 minutes, remove from oven, top with your choice of toppings, and return to oven for additional 20 minutes.

Serve with Rootbeer and a movie!

(Recipe from the Betty Crocker's Cookbook, which is another one of my favorites!)