Cook: Quick and Easy Pizza Dough

Like most Americans, we love pizza at our house. We enjoy ordering pizza on occasion, but we really love making our own pizza. Ordering out is good, but sometimes homemade pizza just tastes better.

On Monday I shared our fun make-your-own mini pizza lunch. Today I am sharing the pizza dough recipe we use. It is so easy. And it's quick. It doesn't have to rise all day, just two quick 10 minute rises. That's it. That means you don't have to plan way ahead to make pizza. It can be a last minute decision. I like that.

The pizza crust process is pretty simple. Mix your dough. Let it rest for 10 minutes. (Hailey has totally picked up on letting the dough rest. She told me the other day she needed to let whatever she was cooking up in her play kitchen "rest".) Separate the dough into either half (for regular pizzas) or into 8 balls (for mini pizzas). Roll each ball into a circle. It doesn't have to be perfect- it's going to be eaten and then no one will see it.

Place the dough onto your baking sheet/pizza stone. Prick the dough all over with a fork and sprinkle on some Mozzarella cheese.

Par bake those puppies for 5-ish minutes, until the cheese is melted. Make sure you do this so the pizza sauce doesn't make your crust soggy!

After the crust has par baked you can then either top your pizza with goodness and bake it a little longer, or if you aren't going to use the crust immediately, you can wrap it in foil and put it in the freezer.

I love to freeze the par-baked crust. I just started doing this a few months ago. It is so handy! Next time you want to make pizza, pull out your crust, let it thaw at room temperature for a little bit, dress it up with sauce and toppings and bake it like normal. Or, if you're impatient like I was the other day, put the crust in the preheated oven for a minute to thaw it quick!

Ok, now that I've blabbed...moving on to the recipe.
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Pizza Dough
Makes 2 (12") pizzas, or 8 mini pizzas

1 cup warm water
1 Tbsp. yeast
2 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
3 cups flour

Mozzarella cheese
pizza sauce
pizza toppings

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

2. Dissolve the yeast in warm water. Add the sugar, salt, and 2 cups flour. Mix to form a slightly sticky dough. If more flour is needed add up to 1 cup more. 

3. Knead the dough for about 3 minutes. Let it rest for 10 minutes.

4. Separate the dough in half, making two balls (or eight balls for mini pizzas). Using a rolling pin, roll each ball out into a large circle. Let the dough rest for another 10 minutes.

5. Prick the crust all over with a fork. Lightly sprinkle mozzarella cheese over the dough. Par-bake the crust for 5-6 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and the crust is close to beginning to brown.

6. Once the crust is par-baked, add toppings and bake it again for another 6-8 minutes or until the cheese is melted and the crust is lightly brown.

[You can make this recipe in the bread machine. (My recent new best friend.) Add the ingredients into the breadmaker wet then dry. I add the yeast last, just because that is what my breadmaker recommends. Set the dough cycle and let it run.] 

Pizza Sauce

Makes enough for 2 (12") pizzas, or 8 mini pizzas

1 (8 oz.) can tomato sauce

2 Tbsp. Parmesan cheese

1 tsp. Italian seasoning

1 tsp. garlic salt

Stir all ingredients together. Spread on par baked pizza crust.
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