Pizza

Little Ella (whom I take care of) would eat pizza every day for her lunch.  She loves frozen pizza that I just warm in the oven but some days we make homemade pizza together.

Making the dough in the bread machine is the easiest part

When the dough is made, we roll and pat it into a circle on a cookie sheet that we sprinkled with cornmeal and a little flour.

Then we add sauce and top with Mozzarella Cheese.

For a nice crispy crust, I heat a pizza stone in the over to 420 degrees.  The trickiest part (for me) of making the pizza is transferring it from the cookie sheet onto the hot pizza stone.  Plenty of cornmeal on the bottom and a few hard shakes helps the dough slip off easily.

Be CAREFUL ~ the oven and stone are very HOT!

I recently tried substituting all-purpose flour for the bread flour.

I found no difference in texture, rising or taste.

I have also made the dough using my KitchenAid mixer and it bakes up just the same.

Here is my dough recipe that came with my first bread maker.
We like it because it rises really nice and tastes great.

Dough directions for a 14-inch pizza

1 cup water

2 Tbs. olive oil

1 tsp. salt

3 cups bread flour

2 Tbs. sugar

2 tsp. bread machine yeast

Place dough ingredients in bread pan in order listed.

Set on basic dough and press start button.

When cycle is completed, remove dough from bread pan.

Preheat oven and pizza stone to 420 degrees.

Shaping directions:

Punch dough down.  Pat/roll dough on a cookie sheet (one with no sides) that has been sprinkled with cornmeal and a little flour, shaping edges to form a crust.

Spread on your favorite pizza sauce, herbs and toppings of choice.

CAREFULLY slide the pizza from the cookie sheet onto the stone (that is in the oven).

Bake for 15 minutes until done.

When done, I use tongs and slide the pizza from the pizza stone onto a large wooden cutting board.

mm mm... your house will smell wonderful and your tummy will be happy!