Monday, March 7, 2011

Homemade Pizza Crust

Make sure and check out the adoption blog fundraiser for a friend of ours by clicking here - there are a lot of great items up for bid March 6-12.

Pizza Crust
I've been experimenting with homemade pizza crust and tried a new one recently.  It is by far the best one I've tried.

Best Pizza Crust
3½ c. flour
1 c. warm water
2 T. yeast
2 T. honey
¼ c. olive oil
½ tsp. salt

Pour warm water into a bowl. Add honey and salt. Mix until well blended.
Add the yeast and mix. Let this mixture sit for about 5 minutes. Add 1 cup
of flour and the olive oil. Mix until well blended. Add the rest of the flour
and mix well.
The dough should turn into a ball. If it is too dry, add water 1 tablespoon at
a time. If it is too sticky, add more flour 1 tablespoon at a time.
Once the dough is balled up, place on a floured surfaced and knead for 1
minute.
Place in a covered bowl and store in a warm, dry area to rise.
After about 45 minutes, the dough should have doubled in size. Punch it
down.
Let it rise for another hour. The dough is now ready to be rolled
out. (You can let it rise once more and punch it down again if you’d like!)
Roll out the dough on a clean, dry surface. Use a rolling pin to flatten it out
to about¼ inch thick.
Take a fork and puncture holes all over the dough
to prevent bubbling. Brush with olive oil and Italian seasoning. Add your
sauce, cheese, and toppings!
Bake pizza at 450 degrees for 15 minutes or until crust is golden brown
My Notes:  This was so easy to make and the honey will adds to the flavor.  It turned out fantastically.  Next time, I will make some garlic butter to brush on the crust after baking (like Hungry Howie's) for a little more flavor!  I did try this in my bread maker the first time and was so mad that it didn't turn out . . .until I realized I forgot the oil LOL  The second time I did it by hand and it really was very easy to do so plus I had more control on the time table with this one too. 

I grabbed this recipe from Oopsey Daisy.  Make sure and check out more recipes over at her blog. (Plus tons of other great ideas!)