Homemade Pizza

Homemade BBQ Pizza

For more than a year Bryan and I made Pizza every Sunday night. It was a great tradition but we put the tradition on hold because I got tired of Pizza and wanted to expand our pallet beyond the staple food of kids and college students. We tried to come up with appetizer recipes, but we have not been as committed to appetizers and are back to eating pizza weekly.

My sister found this pizza crust recipe somewhere and I like to modify it (imagine that)! It is a yeast dough that has to rise, but I made the crust, let it rise, assembled the pizza, baked it, and sat down to eat in an hour so do not let it overwhelm you.

The dough can be kneeded with a bread hook on a stand mixer or you can kneed it by hand. I rarely use the stand mixer as that means more dishes.

When you combine the yeast and water it will look like this:

Continue to stir the yeast and water until it looks like cloudy water.

Add the salt, olive oil, honey and 1 cup of flour. Add additional flour (you will probably add 2 cups total flour) until it looks like this:

Once the dough looks like the above picture you are ready to start kneeding by hand.

TIP: Take off your jewelry! You can see why in the pictures below.

To kneed, gather all of the dough in one side of the bowl (I put it in the bottom of the bowl). Place ½ c. flour or less in the bowl that does not have dough (for me this is the top of the bowl). Cup your hand where the flour is (at the top of the bowl) and slide your hand toward the dough. Your hand should be in a loose cup shape, like above, and as you gather the dough in your hand push down you wrist. Replace your hand at the top of the bowl and repeat many times.

When the dough is sticky, add more flour, adding ¼ c. at a time and continue kneeding. Repeat this process as much as necessary but do not use more flour than the recipe calls for.

One way I know that I have added enough flour is that the dough no longer sticks to my hand and looks like this:

Place the dough in a container that is at least twice its size and has an airtight lid. Put the plug in your kitchen sink and fill the sink with 120 degree water. You want to fill the sink so that the dough in its container sits in water but does not float. Leave the dough in the water until it is double in size. (The recipe calls for an hour, but I wait for the airtight lit to pop off and then move on. Time is of the essence, right?) Once the airtight lid pops off the dough it will be about double in size and will look like this:

Homemade Pizza Dough:

1 pkg or 1 Tbsp. yeast dissolved in 1 c. 120 degree water

½ tsp. salt

2 Tbsp. olive oil

1 Tbsp. honey

2 ½ - 3 ½ c. flour

Once the yeast is dissolved in the water add the salt, olive oil, and honey. Stir to combine and then add 1 cup of flour. Stir to combine. Add another cup of flour and start kneeding the dough and adding the additional flour as necessary.

Cover, and let rise for 1 hour.

Spread on a pan, and bake the dough alone at 450 degrees for 5-7 minutes.

Take the pizza out of the oven and assemble the pizza, then bake at 450 degrees for 10-13 minutes longer.