Homemade pizza (the crust, too!)

Another exciting August project: homemade pizza! Pizza crust from scratch and all! We were very excited to share this meal with Chris's sister in law, Melissa (and the hungry baby boy in her tummy :)) at the last minute!


I got the pizza dough going after work one Friday afternoon (and made a MESS of my kitchen, I will admit) but it was a fun project! Very similar to my past bread-making endeavors, just bigger... and... messier... oh well! Maybe that's a good sign??


Anyways, after I got the dough formed, I gathered up the rest of the ingredients/ toppings and headed over to Chris's house so that we could design and bake the pies together.


We decided on, a little frantically,  two pizzas semi- divided in half. Due to Melissa's arrival, we weren't sure what she would be in the mood for or wouldn't be able to eat since she's preggo :) So we ended up with:
Pizza 1 - Half mozz & tomato, half pepperoni & jalepeno
Pizza 2 - Buffalo chicken pizza (half with chicken, half without)


So.... here's how I did the dough:


2 tsp pizza yeast (which apparently requires no rise-time, helpful when you're in a rush!)

2 tsp sugar
2 tsp salt
3/4 cup warm water
2 tbsp olive oil
3-4 cups flour
oregano, basil, etc.


Mix yeast, sugar, salt, and water about 1 minute until blended.
Add oil, stir.
Add flour, 1/2 cup at a time until a ball is formed that is slightly sticky but stays formed. Continue to add flour as necessary. Add in Italian seasonings as desired.
Knead on a floured surface until smooth and elastic. Form back into a ball and place in an oiled bowl until ready to make pizza.


I baked both pizzas at 400 degrees for about 10-12 minutes. The buffalo chicken pizza took a couple minutes longer.


We made fresh tomato sauce for pizza #1 and used a variety of Italian spices and topped with slices of tomato, pepperoni, jalepeno, mozzarella cheese, and grated romano cheese. To make the sauce for the buffalo chicken pizza (rather than using tomato sauce), we mixed bleu cheese dressing with Frank's Red Hot hot sauce, then topped with mozzarella cheese and shredded chicken.