Homemade Pizza!

I finally snapped a photo of one of my homemade pizza's...not the best photo I could have taken, but it will work. LOL We are loving having pizza more often, since I got a pizza stone for my birthday. The pizza stone makes the crust more crispy, which we love.

I used to use the crust my Mom made, and it's good, but I wanted a crust that was thicker, and a little chewy, so when I got the stone, I went looking for a recipe to try. I found this recipe and tried it, then played around with it a little, till I got it to where I liked it, with a little whole wheat flour and a tad bit of honey in it, because I like the flavor the whole wheat gives, and the honey feeds the yeast a little, which is helpful with the whole wheat flour. Here is the crust recipe I've been making lately.

Pizza Crust

1 cup warm water
1 Tab. dry yeast
1-2 tea. honey
1 tea. salt
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 cups white flour

Put warm water and yeast in a bowl, stir it around till dissolved. Add honey, stir. Add salt and flour and stir till mixed as much as you can...then knead at least till all the flour is well incorporated into the dough...do not add more flour.

Let rise, then roll out and place on a pizza peal that's been sprinkled with cornmeal (or oiled metal pan, if that's what you are using). Make sure it moves around freely on it, and fold up a crust if you want one...then let rise again as you preheat your pizza stone. Spread your favorite pizza sauce on, then put on your favorite toppings. If using a pan, you may need to prebake the crust a little, before adding your toppings.

On my preheated pizza stone (heated in 450 degree oven for at least a half hour...and yes it seems like a long time, and probably uses more propane, but it's worth it to me! LOL) I cook my pizza for 10 minutes. In a pan, I'd probably follow the recipe I linked to (above) on Tammy's recipes, and precook the dough at 375 for 7-10 minutes, then add toppings and bake for another 20 minutes...but I've not done it that way, so have no idea how it would work.

I use homemade pizza sauce on mine, recipe to follow, and also put 2-3 kinds of cheese on it. Homemade Mozzarella, homemade feta or homemade dry cottage cheese & a little bit of store bought cheddar...because I haven't made my own cheddar so far. I also use our ground venison, and grind my own whole wheat flour...so really the only thing I had to buy was the white flour and the spices in the sauce, and cheddar cheese, which makes it pretty cheap to make too, course you can add other toppings too...I just am not real fond of lots of toppings. :)


Homemade Pizza Sauce

2 Tab. butter (or olive oil)
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped (or can use 2 tea. of the bottled minced garlic)
1/2 green pepper finely chopped (optional)
2 - 16 oz cans tomato sauce (or 1 qt homemade tomato sauce)
1 tab honey
1 tea. salt
1/4 tea. pepper
2 tab. oregano
1 tea. basil
1/4 cup parsley

Heat a large sauce pan on medium heat. Add the butter, onions, garlic and green pepper and saute until soft.

Add the tomato sauce, and all the other ingredients. Simmer, uncovered, over a low heat until thick.

I just made my first pizza sauce from homemade tomato sauce...started with homegrown tomatoes (not my own, but given to us by a friend). It's canned up, ready and waiting for me to finish using the stuff I already had made up and in the freezer, which is where I put the excess so I can just pull it out and have it ready for pizza whenever we want some.

I also cook more meat than I want, and put it in little bags in the freezer, and freeze my cheese...so basically I just have to pull things out, let it thaw, and make the pizzas. I sometimes make extra dough, and freeze it in a ball...so it's easy to pull out, and let thaw, if I'm to busy to make fresh pizza dough. That way we have a yummy pizza for lunch, even if I'm to busy to make everything fresh that day, that tastes just as good as if I had made everything fresh!

We usually have some leftover pizza for the next day this way too, that I put in my toaster oven to heat up...so we get two lunches out of one pizza...although usually not quite as many pieces the 2nd day. :)

I'd love to hear if anyone makes their own pizza...and what kind of toppings everyone likes on their pizza...maybe it would get me to try something new on our pizza...once in a while...MAYBE. LOL