Pizza Night!

I make pizza a lot, like once a week a lot.  Pre-preggo girl made herself cauliflower crust pizza, but I'm enjoying this flour crust as much as I can right now!!!  Please excuse the burnt crust on the bottom pizza.  It's not picture worthy, for sure, but I think I was putting someone in a time out when my timer went off and this was the result.  At least it's a realistic expectation for those of you with kids!

I snagged my crust recipe from a magazine years ago.  It's on a tattered, thin piece of magazine paper and I pretty much know it by heart now...and it's the best.  If I could remember the magazine, I would plug it, but I can't.  I "think" it was Everyday Food, which isn't even published anymore, but not 100% sure.

My top pizza is the kid pizza...cause my picky eaters like cheese....that's it.  Ok, Jack will do pepperoni, but if one speck of pepperoni touches Emma's slice, it's all over....so we do cheese so the girl will consume more than 100 calories a day.  The bottom pizza is the adult pizza....I pretty much do a new combo every time we have pizza. I will list some topping combos that we love at the bottom for you!

Crust -
Pour 1 cup of warm (like really warm) water into a large bowl.  Add 1 tsp of sugar and whisk to dissolve the sugar.  Sprinkle 1 packet of yeast on the top (I like the special Pizza Yeast packets, but any yeast will work).  Let it sit until the yeast is foamy, about 5 minutes.  Add 1 tsp of salt and 2 tsp of olive oil.  Whisk it all together.  Add 2 1/4 cups of flour (bread flour or all purpose will work, white or wheat or a mix, your choice - wheat will make a denser, tougher crust, be warned) and mix with a wooden spoon until combines and dough forms a ball.  Now, I don't like lots of dirty dishes, so I knead it in the bowl.  Sprinkle some flour on top and on your hands and knead it (in the bowl or not) for about 2 minutes, but basically until it's all together in a nice, elastic-y ball.  Pick up your dough and spray the entire bowl with cooking spray or olive oil. Put the dough in the bowl and spray the top with spray/oil.  Cover tightly with saran wrap and place in a warm area to rise.  Either outside on a hot day/85+ degrees (out of direct sunlight) or on your stove, with the oven  turned on.  If you are using your stove, be sure the burners don't get too hot from the oven below or else you might cook the dough.  Let it rise until it's doubled in size, about 45 mins.  Punch it down and let it rise another 30 mins.  Divide the dough into two balls and stretch out onto your pizza stones.  If you don't have stones, and you make pizza, you need them.  THEY ARE THE BEST!  You can use a metal pizza pan or a pizza grill pan too, but you will get the best crust from a stone.  Ok, stretch the dough, don't roll it.  It takes some time and finesse to get it to the edges.  If it rips, that's fine, just smoosh some more dough over the rip.  No one sees that part any way.  Preheat your oven to 500 F and sprinkle your crusts with salt and pepper.  Grate some parmesan over the edges of the crust and bake until the crust is totally cooked, about 5 minutes....but it's best if you touch it to see if it's firm and crisp.  Cook the pizzas one at a time or you will end up with a pizza with a cooked top and raw bottom and one with a raw top and cooked bottom.  Ok, turn the oven to broil and start to top your pizzas!

Pizza Toppings (for the two I made)-

Cheese pizza - easy.  Spread a thin layer (or thick if you like-a the sauce) of jarred pasta sauce (I always use a garlic red sauce) onto the crust, leaving an edge to hold.  Sprinkle shredded mozzarella cheese over the sauce.  Make sure you only use LOW MOISTURE shredded mozzarella.  Costco has the best low moisture, but you also get a 100 lb bag of cheese.  If you don't get low moisture, you will have little pools of cheese water on your pizza.  Doesn't ruin it, but it's a little gross to look at.  Shred a little parm on top.  Place under the broiler until the cheese is melted - about 2 minutes.

Pesto Chicken Pizza - Spread a thin layer of jarred or fresh pesto on the crust, leaving a spot to hold.  If it's not summer and I do not have my own basil to make pesto, I use Bertoli's in a plastic container.  Top with grilled chicken cut into strips (just grill it on the grill pan with salt and pepper, or buy the pre-cooked strips to save time), grape tomatoes cut in half (or sliced tomatoes, whatever you have), slices of fresh mozzarella (no shred for this, you want fresh), and a little shredded parm.  Word to the wise for the fresh mozzarella on pizza.  Take the mozzarella out of the container, cut it into slices and press it between paper towels for several minutes before putting it on the pizza.  Remember the cheese water?  Yeah, it's about 100x worse with fresh mozzarella.  Tomatoes will do the same thing...so be careful!  Put it under the broiler until the cheese is melted...preferably not when a toddler is going into a time out.

So, other combo's we like -
*Pesto, tomato, fresh mozzarella
*Feta (as the bottom layer - no sauce), grilled flank steak strips, strawberries, drizzled with balsamic - sounds weird, tastes A-MAZING
*BBQ sauce, grilled chicken, grilled pineapple, shredded mozzarella and shredded cheddar

For you working peeps - the crust is a little hard to make ahead...but it can be done.  Mix the ingredients, knead it, let it rise twice and spread it onto your pans.  Then, put it in the fridge.  It will shrink, like a lot.  Pull it out when you get home and set it in a warm place (like the top of the stove with the oven on) while you change clothes, walk the dog, get your other ingredients out, etc.  Try to let it sit at least 30-45 mins if you can.  It will start to puff up and "rise" a bit.  Once it's warm, you can re-stretch it out.  Then you can bake it.  There is always a chance, with yeasty dough, that this won't work, but it should most of the time.

I didn't enter calories for this one because there are no exact measurements and you can vary the toppings a lot.  I use myfitnesspal.com to get calorie counts, so head on over there and you can do your own pizza!