A recipe a day....: Pizza!

I have a pizza recipe, given to me by a friend, and further modified to suit my family's taste.

It is a favorite with my family, and when we celebrated my brother's birthday this past week, he requested pizza for his birthday dinner. He also asked that I make a couple extra crusts and some sauce for him to take to a party he was going to the next day, and then he would assemble it there.

I started with the yeast, setting it to dissolve in the warm water and honey.

Then I started on the flour mixture, adding olive oil and various spices and cheeses. We were out of cheddar cheese, so I had to make due with just the parmesan.

I took the towel off of the yeast, to find it bubbling over the top of the mixing bowl. The number of pizza crusts I intended to make called for a quadrupling of the recipe, when previously I'd only tripled it. Looking at the full bowl of flour, and the full bowl of yeast/water, I wasn't sure both would fit when I added them together!

Thankfully, they did fit, and after kneading the dough for a while, and adding a bit of flour to get it to the correct consistency, I set it to rise on the counter.

While the dough rose, I floured 6 pizza pans. I wasn't sure how many pizzas the dough would make, but I knew it would make at least 6.

Then I floured the rolling pin, and put flour on the table, so I could roll out the dough.

I love rolling out pizza dough. ^_^

Some like thick crust and some (me!) like thin crust. :P

When all was said and done, it turned out there was enough dough for seven pizzas. Having only six round pans, I used a cookie sheet for the seventh. Then I set aside two to give to my brother, put the sheet pizza in the freezer to make later, and packaged up the remaining four to assemble the next day, when we would need them.

Next I had to make the sauce. Sauce completely makes the pizza, in my opinion, and I use a special recipe that my mom taught me to make the sauce. Using a basic tomato sauce base, I add various spices and seasonings until it's just right. Mmmm! :)

Then I grated up some mozzarella cheese, and a bit of cheddar cheese to put on top. In my opinion, vegetables have no business being on a pizza, and we were out of any sort of meat to put on. Plain cheese is the preferred topping in my house, anyway, so once the cheese was grated, the pizzas were all ready to put together the next day!