Pizza is a wonderful thing. Just about everyone loves it and it's pretty simple to make. It's a great activity/meal to make with children. So if you have some of your own, babysit or you've gotten the task of keeping neices or nephews entertained, have them help you make pizza. It's fun and you can add whatever you want to it.
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| A pizza I made back in February |
I do admit, when I make pizza I don't make my own sauce and I normally don't make my own dough. My grocery store is awesome and sells pre-made pizza dough and sauce. You can easily buy pre made dough and sauce. I know Ragu makes a decent pizza sauce. If you can't find pre-made dough you can easily make it. There are pizza dough making kits available and you could also make your own from scratch.
Though I haven't used it in years, I have a simple recipe for calzones and the dough recipe should work for pizza as well. After all, a calzone is just a reverse pizza in a pocket. This is a recipe I used in cooking class in middle school, I saved all of my recipe hand outs from it. There were some good and simple recipes, I still use the soft pretzel recipe. If you would like a different recipe, Pinterest is a great resource. I find a lot of recipes there.
For the dough you will need:
1 package dry yeast
1 C warm water
1 1/2 Tsp sugar
1/2 Tsp salt
1 1/2 C Flour
2 Tbsp Oil
First in a large bowl you want to combine the package of yeast and water. It is VERY important that the water be warm, as it allows the yeast to grow. Add the oil and mix. Next add sugar and stir. Sugar is also very important, it acts in a way like food for the yeast and feeds it. It's important as well as the WARM water to help it rise.
Add the salt an flour gradually and stir until a ball forms. Always add flour gradually in a recipe unless otherwise stated. If you don't, you will end up with a hard to stir mess. Turn the ball of dough over onto a floured area and knead for 5 to 7 minutes.
Grease a ziplock bag and put the dough in it, refrigerate over night. The next day or whenever you make your pizza, preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
Now, onto some tips for making pizza.
You will want to use a pizza pan to make a pizza, but in a pinch a regular pan/cookie sheet works as well.
No matter if you made your dough or went pre-made always let it sit and come to room temp before attempting to spread it onto your pan. Cold dough is harder to stretch.
When I make pizza, to start stretching I like to hold it by one end in the air and stretch, sometimes wiggling it like you're airing out some sheets. It has always helped me get a good amount of the dough stretched and it stretches easier than if I were to stretch it on the pan.
I personally never grease my pan, it makes it harder for the pizza crust part of the dough to grip the sides of the pan.
After you add your sauce and before you add the cheese, sprinkle some Italian seasoning on top of the sauce. It makes the pizza more flavorful. You can also sprinkle some over the top of you cheese and toppings if you wish.
For stuffed crust, don't fold shredded cheese into the crust, use string cheese.
I normally use a 3 cup bag of mozzarella for pizza to make it extra cheesy.
Let it sit a few minutes before cutting to allow the sauce and cheese to settle.
Cut with a pizza cutter, not a knife.
And there you go, a yummy pizza! If anyone uses any of these tips/tries to make a pizza let me know! If you show me pictures I may even feature them in a future post. I hope that these tips help. I try to make my cooking posts super simple to follow so that those of you that are cooking challenged can easily make something. After all cooking is not hard, contrary to popular belief. If anyone ever has post suggestions or things they would like me to write about your suggestions and comments are always welcome! Hope you all have a lovely saturday <3
Xoxo
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As I said before, I do know pizza and this should be good.
ReplyDeleteYou should try making it!! Seriously, it's good.
DeleteI will if it's for you.
ReplyDelete