Pizza

First, make your dough. Don’t be afraid of making your own dough. My recipe only uses 5 ingredients and you do not have to be a pro at making bread to make this simple dough. If you don’t have time to make your own dough, you can pick up dough from many pizzerias or even your local grocery store.

Ingredients for Dough:
1 1/2 cups warm water
1 Tablespoon yeast
A touch of sugar
3 1/2 to 4 C. flour
1 tsp. salt
1/3 C. sugar

Other Ingredients:
Tomato Sauce
Cheese
Desired Toppings


Directions:
Mix water, yeast and the touch of sugar, set aside and let sit. In another bowl mix together 3 1/2 C. flour, salt and 1/3 C. sugar. Mix the water mixture and flour mixture together. Add more flour if the dough is too sticky (I usually need to add another half cup, making the total 4 cups). Knead the dough until it comes together.
Cover the dough and let it raise for about 30 minutes or longer if you have time.

Gather your toppings. We like a lot of different kinds of pizza but we usually use what I already have on hand. Some of our favorites are ham and pineapple (we use the same ham we use for our sandwiches), pineapple and onion, sausage and mushrooms, BBQ chicken and garlic chicken. You will also need cheese. I like to use mozzarella with just a bit of cheddar added in.

Make your sauce. Of course you can buy pre-made sauce, but making your own is quite simple. I just warm a can of tomato sauce on the stove top and add spices. I use garlic powder, some salt, basil and oregano.

Today I made garlic chicken pizza and BBQ chicken pizza. For the garlic sauce, I put 1 Tbsp. butter and 3-4 garlic cloves that I chopped into a bowl. Place it in the microwave for just a few seconds, then add some salt. For the BBQ chicken pizza, I just use bottled BBQ sauce.

Shape your dough and place on pans. We only have one pizza sheet. For the other pizzas I use my cookie sheets, they work just as well. Be sure and spray your cookie sheets with PAM. If you are having a hard time getting the dough to stretch, just give it a minute to rest.

Prick your dough with a fork. This will help reduce any big bubbles.

Spread your sauce. Leave some room for your crust.

Sprinkle a light layer of cheese over the sauce.

Spread your toppings. We’re using chicken and red onions today.

Sprinkle with more cheese. I also like to sprinkle a little basil on top.

Bake. I put mine in a cold oven and turn it to 400 degrees. I bake it until the cheese is brown and bubbly, or about 15-20 minutes. Just keep an eye on it and see how it goes.