Foodie Friday: Homemade Pizza

We love homemade pizza around our house.   We rarely, if ever, order take out anymore.   I make up the dough ahead of time and freeze it for days we are craving pizza.   The dough thaws within 1 1/2 and only takes 20 minutes of prep and cooking time - depending on how detailed you get with your toppings!  



We have been using a pizza dough recipe I found online that was suppose to be a knock off of Olive Gardens Pizza, and it was pretty good.  But then I found a new pizza dough recipe from The Pioneer Woman and we'll just say I'm not looking back .   The recipe produced light, fluffy, and oh so yummy pizza every time.


I did tweak her recipe some to fit out tastes a little better though.  After all, following recipes to the letter would be boring, right?   ;)


Homemade Pizza Dough

Ingredients
3 C. Warm Water
2 tsp. Yeast
8 C. All Purpose Flour
2 tsp. salt
2/3 C. Extra Virgin Olive Oil


Place Warm Water in bowl and sprinkle Yeast over top.   Allow to sit 4-5 minutes.   Meanwhile, add flour and salt in mixing bowl.  Turn mixer on low and slowly add Olive Oil until mixture becomes wet.    Gently stir yeast/water mixture and add to other ingredients until dough forms a ball and the sides of the bowl are clean.

Coat bowl with oil {I use regular oil since olive oil is so expensive - it is just so the dough will rise in the bowl instead of sticking, but feel free to use whatever you like!} and place dough inside, turning to coat all sides with oil.  Cover and let rise 1-2 hours or until doubled in side.


When dough has risen punch it back down and separate into 4 equal rolls.    Preheat the oven to 500 degrees.     Unless you plan on having 4 pizzas at once, you can freeze the other 3 rolls in freezer safe baggies to use later.  Trust me, they come in handy later on when that pizza craving hits.  ;)

 Roll dough onto pizza pan or pizza stone and, using your hands, stretch dough into desired shape.   It may seem rather flat, but it will rise during baking.   

Add toppings.   We love pepperoni, minced garlic, and lots of onion and cheese!

   Bake pizza at 500 degrees for 10 minutes or until crust is golden brown.  


Enjoy!