Pizza

So I have really been into making pizza lately. When most people think of pizza, I think that the first thing they think of "Oh my gosh I don't have time to cook tonight I think I'll order from Domino's". Pizza can actually be a very classy and wonderful dinner. There are so many different things that you can do with it and you can make it as gourmet as you like. My whole pizza fetish started off when I went to my husband and told him that I would make him anything he wanted for dinner. I said "you say it and I'll make it. I will cook you anything you want to eat". I was expecting him to come back and say something like lamb chops or pork and apples or filet minion. I was totally ready for that. But, to my surprise, he looked at me and said "Honey, I would really like some pizza". I then realized that we had not had pizza since we had been married (We had been married for about five months at this time). I then decided that I would attempt to make him the best pizza he had ever had. I don;t want my dear husband to be deprived of anything. I knew that his favorite pizza toppings were pepperoni and pineapple so I went out to the store and bought the ingredients to make the pizza. While I was shopping I realized that I needed to figure out what to do about dough. My mom had made home made pizza when I was a kid but she used a foccacia dough for her pizza. I resorted to buying a pre-made dough and putting the toppings on it and baking it in the oven. My husband loved it and enjoyed it immensely. Over the next few days I did some research on making your own dough and found out that there are hundreds of different ways to make pizza dough. After much research and a few experiments I think that I have found the easiest and best dough. I tried it out again and my husband loved his pizza even more. I now make this dough quite often and leave it in the freezer and pull it out when I don't have time to cook.

Here is how to make the dough:
1/4 cup of warm water
1 envelope of active dry yeast
1 tsp of sugar
1/2 tsp salt
4 cups of flour
1 1/4 cups of cold water
1TBSP of olive oil

In a small bowl combine the warm water, the yeast and the sugar. stir and let rest. In a food processor or a stand mixer combine the flour and the salt. Add in the yeast mixture and stir. slowly add in the cold water and oil until a ball forms. do not over mix. Remove from the mixer and knead with hands. Put in an oiled bowl and let it rise for one hour.  Remove from the bowl and divide into 2-4 balls. Let rise for another 30 min.  You can then take the dough balls and wrap them is seran wrap and freeze them or, of course, use it for the pizza right away.
Bake 475 for 12-15 min or until the crust is golden brown on the bottom. Bake on a pizza pan with holes in the bottom or on a pizza stone.
If you are going to freeze it make sure that you let it defrost at room temp before you use it.
It is best to bake the dough when it is at room temp, not when it is chilled.

To spread the dough lay the ball out on your cutting board. Press into it with your hands pushing at the thicker parts of the dough and spreading it outward. Do not worry if you cannot form a perfect circle. make the dough as even and flat as you can.

For toppings: Come on people, this is pizza. Put whatever you want on the top.

Have Fun!