Homemade Pizza

I don't know about you guys, but my absolute favorite food is pizza, thick crust, thin crust, plain cheese, meat, fully loaded, it doesn't matter much to me. I just love the combination of sauce(lots of sauce), crust and cheese(light cheese). There is nothing better.  It is the end all be all for me, I could eat it every day.

However, we don't order pizza very often, only as a special treat. Yes I do love having it delivered, fresh and hot to my door, but honestly it costs us $40 every time we order pizza. You see, we cannot simply order from whoever has the best deal, not with a child with food allergies. We have to order from the most expensive pizza place around. Yes, it is delicious, but we order it because they are so cautious and aware. When I place an order, they immediately send me to the supervisor, because our address/phone number is flagged. It is flagged to say that we have a dairy allergy in the house. They always ask if this person is eating the pizza today. Then they procede to tell me that they always use new pizza cutters, etc. when making a pizza with a dairy allergy. We always order one with no cheese at all, and it has never been delivered wrong, not one single time.

So while it is worth it to spend the extra when ordering pizza, to make sure that we receive a safe one for my daughter. I don't like spending $40 on pizza every Friday, that adds up to $160-$200 a month, just for pizza. So, I have figured out a way to make my own.

I do not buy store bought crust, I make mine from scratch. Sometimes I will even make them in advance and freeze them for when the rest of the family will have frozen pizza, my youngest daughter and I will have homemade pizza, with the frozen dough. Or when all of us have homemade pizza, I will make 2 fresh crusts.

Here is the recipe that I have used for years. I even use this for homemade breadsticks.

2 tsp yeast

1 cup hot water

sprinkle of sugar

2 T oil

1 tsp salt

2 1/2 - 3 1/2 cups of flour ( I usually do one cup whole wheat and 2 cups white flour)

In a bowl, I mix the yeast, hot water and sugar and let it sit for 5 minutes. It turns a little foamy.  Then I simply mix everything together. Once it is mixed, I will knead it on the counter for a few minutes. I have used it right away many times, but that makes a thin crust. I prefer to cover the bowl with a towel and let it rise some. This makes a thicker crust, which is my favorite.

Then I will use either spaghetti sauce that I made and froze or store bought from a jar. I have even used straight tomato sauce from a can in a pinch. I sprinkle garlic salt, italian seasoning and parmesian cheese on the saue. Then I sprinkle with cheese. We usually do hamburger and pepperoni, that is my kids favorite. We always make a whole or half of one without cheese, this not only accomodates my food allergy daughter but also my oldest, who likes hers better plain or with little cheese.

Here is the finished product, doesn't it look yummy?

Around here Friday is usually pizza night. After a long week, it is nice to eat something easy that doesn't dirty up a lot of dishes.

Do you enjoy homemade pizza? If so, how do you make it?

This post linked to Works for Me Wednesday, Tasty Tuesday and Ultimate Recipe Swap.