Homemade pizza

Well, ladies and gentlemen, it's finally happened!  I've moved into a kitchen that I keep clean enough to take pictures in!  And thus begins the posts that have pictures with them :)  You're about to get more than you ever asked for...

[In hindsight, homemade bread can be kind of tricky if you don't have experience with it, so I'm glad I included so many pictures.]

Homemade pizza is one of my family's all-time favorite foods.  All growing up, it was a special meal because it took a little while to make, and it was often the chosen meal for birthdays, coming home from college, and other special occasions.  The crust for this recipe makes more of a soft, bread-like crust instead of a crispy one, but I'll leave instructions to make it either way if you prefer a crispy crust.  This is my mom's recipe :)

First, let me introduce the star of the show:  

My friends, this is Bosch, Jr.  "Junior" because it's the small version of the glorious mixer variety called "Bosch."  My parents gave it to me my sophomore year of college and I love it.  (Thanks, Mom and Dad!)

Okay, so step one: Mix together 1 teaspoon of sugar, 1 tablespoon of yeast, and 1 1/4 cups of hot water.  How can you tell if "hot" is hot enough?  My mom told me it's like this: It should be almost too hot to put your finger in the water coming out of the tap, but not hot enough for steam to also be coming out.  After putting everything together, wait for the yeast to activate.  Here are some pictures in case you're new to bread-making:

This picture was taken pretty soon after putting everything in the bowl.  See how the yeast has started to get a little fluffy, but there are still some small yeast particles, too?

This is after the yeast has been activated.  You'll see the particles float to the top of the water and then quickly fluff up.  At the beginning, you'll wonder if it's happening, but just give it a little time.  All of a sudden big clumps will start to fluff up and then you'll know the party has started!

Next, add in 1 1/2 cups of flour, 1 teaspoon of salt, and 1/4 cup of vegetable/canola oil, and beat everything together for two minutes.

Yum! :)

After the two minutes, knead in more flour until the mixture pulls away from the sides.  This is the confusing part, at least for me.  Lucky for you, I took plenty of pictures during the process so you can see exactly what it should look like.  The amount of flour that gets added will depend on how humid the weather is, how humid your house is, whatever the flour feels like doing... you get the idea :)  I like to add the flour 1/2 cup at a time and often have to add about 2 cups, just to give you an idea. 

This is the dough before any extra flour...

And this is it after some extra flour has been added.  See how it's starting to pull away from the sides?

 

Ok, that picture is a pretty good one of the dough pulling away from the sides.  It's a little hard to get a picture of during the actual process, but I hope that helps.

 

Alright!  So when the dough has enough flour to have pulled away from the sides (as shown above), take it out of the bowl (put some oil on your hands!) and stretch it out a little.  Hold onto one end of the dough and work it between your hands - like how you might hold a baby up in the air and bounce it up and down - and it will stretch into a tube.  Lay this onto your greased cookie sheet.  By stretching it out now, you have made the rolling-out process later much easier.

 

 

Set the timer for 40 minutes.

 

Yay!  They've risen!  (I always make a double batch, so that's why there are two.)  Now set the oven to 350 degrees, roll the dough out to cover the whole pan, and cook your dough for 15 minutes.

 

Rolled out... I use the sophisticated cup method.

...and baked!

Now you're ready to add on the toppings.  I use canned spaghetti sauce for the sauce, and this time chose to make one pepperoni pizza and one Hawaiian.  

 

Check out that sweet spatula in the spaghetti sauce can. Why yes, it does have arms and legs.

We tried using sliceable mozzarella this time.  Not sure how I felt about that.  Much trickier than just using grated.

Bake your pizzas at 350 for 10 minutes if you want a very bready-textured crust, or for 20-25 minutes or until the edges turn golden brown for a crispier crust.  ¡Buen provecho!

Homemade Pizza
makes one cookie sheet of pizza crust

1 tsp sugar
1 T yeast
1 1/4 c water
1 1/2 c flour (+ additional)
1 tsp salt
1/4 c oil

Pizza toppings

Put sugar, yeast, and hot water into mixer and let stand until yeast is activated.  Add the rest of the ingredients and beat for 2 minutes.  Continue to knead while adding in flour until the dough comes together and pulls away from the sides of the bowl.  Shape dough into a tube and lay out to rise on a cookie sheet.  Let rise 40 minutes.  Roll the dough out to fill up the cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 15 minutes.  Put on desired toppings and bake an additional 10 minutes for a soft crust or 20-25 minutes for a crispier crust.