The joys of Home-Made Pizza

Can I just say how much I love Pizza? I think maybe sometimes I forget how incredibly delicious all of these flavors melded together can be. Plus it can be fun letting your kids help you pound out the dough. I mean, what's a kitchen without a coating of flour on every surface and in every nook and cranny?

Alright, to make this pizza, I used a recipe that I found online right here. It's a fairly simple dough, but it caught my attention with the addition of honey. Honestly I had seen tons of recipes with sugar, but never honey. So that's why I decided to go with it.

So here we go, in order, this is how I made home-made pizza.

First, I measured out the water.

Then, I added the salt.

Next, the honey.....

Next, the yeast.

NOW, about the yeast.
You have to give the yeast some time to set up, or start expanding in the mixture. 15 minutes has been the average for almost every recipe I have ever encountered including yeast.
Now, while I was waiting for the yeast to set up, I got out my trusty sifter, and sifted the flour to be used next.

Alright, we remember what the mixture looked like before we let the yeast set up right?

Here's what it looked like after:

So I added the oil,

and I began mixing in the flour, a little at a time.

After getting all the flour in the bowl, the dough started to get too tough to mix with my spoon, so down went the spoon and in went my hands.

When the dough finally firmed up a bit, I rolled it out onto the table, and kneaded it for about 6-8 minutes.

Once I got it worked into a decent size ball, I cut it in half to make two pizzas.

I worked the dough into smooth balls, then placed them in two bowls big enough to let them expand to double in size.

Then I covered them with a little bit of olive oil, and let them sit on the stove for about an hour and a half.

As I let the dough rise, I started chopping up my toppings for the pizza. I used green pepper, onion, tomato, fresh garlic, black olives, and mushrooms. (the meats I bought were pre-sliced.)

Next I added some spices to the sauce. (I use canned contadina sauce. I think this is some of the best canned sauce out there.)
Next I used my food processor to shred the cheese. FYI I try to always use whole milk cheese. This always means you have to grate it yourself, but it is absolutely worth it.

Now back to the dough. You remember what it looked like before I let it rise right?

Well here it is now:

Next I took the dough out of the bowls, and dipped it in some flour,

Then I started flattening it out on the table.

After I pressed it out as much as I could with my hands, I picked it up and stretched it around the outside.

Next once I got it to the right size, I flopped it down on my pizza pan. ( I use the vented pizza pans. It helps the bottoms brown faster by letting air go through.)

Next, I folded in the edges, and pressed them back into the dough. making sure to leave no bubbles.

Then it was time for the sauce. I started with a dab in the middle. And I just started spreading it. Here its good to keep in mind that you should not push down on the spoon. Just let the weight of the spoon do the spreading.

Next it was time to start the toppings. For my wife's pizza, she doesn't really dig a ton of toppings on her pizza. So I started with the cheese alone.

Now for mine, I pretty much like everything but the kitchen sink on my pizza. So what I do is measure out how much cheese I want to use in a bowl, then I add the toppings into the cheese and mix it all up with my hands. I think it takes less time and it evenly distributes the toppings. So I added everything but the meat to the bowl.

Then I just spread it out like normal.

So here's what we ended up with.

Now, I never cook two pizza's at the same time. It takes forever, and they always seem to be uneven. So I popped the first one in, at 450 degrees on the highest rack. Put up as high as it goes. It took about 15 minutes to cook them. And I opened up the oven at the halfway point and turned them. (The back of the oven always seems to be hotter.)

So there you have it. Pizza at home. And for the price it would have cost me to order two from a pizzeria, I made four at home. You just cant beat that. I want to give a special thanks to my wife for staying up late with me to take all of these awesome pictures.