Stay at Home Pizza

So easy, so versatile. Use a pizza stone preheated in your oven and you will never go back to the frozen stuff.

Homemade Pizza
(This dough recipe makes enough for three 12 inch pizzas. Store bought dough works just great) Basic Pizza Dough:
4 ½ cups flour, plus extra for the counter
1 envelope (or 2 ¼ tsps) instant or rapid-rise yeast
1 ½ tsp salt
2 Tbs olive oil
1 ¾ cups water, warm
Pepperoni Pizza (makes 1 pizza):
3/4-1 cup sauce
1-2 cups mozzarella cheese
Pepperoni slices (regular or turkey)
Olive Oil
Chicken Ranch Pizza:
3/4-1 cup ranch dressing (you can add a small amount of minced garlic for some zip)
Cooked and sliced chicken
1-2 cups mozzarella cheese
Thinly sliced tomatoes
Thinly sliced red onions
Cooked bacon pieces
Olive oil
Barbeque Chicken Pizza:
3/4-1 cup barbeque sauce
1-2 cups mozzarella cheese
Cooked and sliced chicken
Sliced mushrooms
Sliced red onion Pineapple tidbits
Olive oil
Crust: Whisk 4 cups flour, yeast and salt in a large bowl. Add oil and water and still with spatula until dough comes together. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured counter and knead by hand until forms a smooth, round ball (about 10 min.), adding the remaining flour as needed to prevent dough from sticking to the counter. Transfer to a lightly oiled bowl, and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, 1 to 1 ½ hours.
Pizza: Heat oven to 500° and let baking stone or upside down cookie sheet heat for at least 30 minutes. Turn dough onto lightly floured counter and cut into three pieces. Shape each piece into a smooth round ball, cover with plastic wrap, and let rest for 20-30 minutes. Working with one ball at a time, stretch and shape the dough into one 12 inch round on a piece of parchment paper. Spread sauce over pizza, leaving a 1/2 inch border around the edges. Next, add the cheese and any desired toppings listed above. Lightly brush the edge of the dough with olive oil. Put pizza (parchment paper and all) in the oven. Bake until the curst edges are brown and the cheese is golden, 8 to 13 minutes. Transfer to a cutting board and remove parchment. Let the stone or pan reheat for 5 minutes before baking the next pizza.

Favorite Breadsticks

My family LOVES these, but I think what makes this my favorite breadstick recipe is that they are something that I can make even if the"What's for dinner?" question doesn't come to mind until 5:00Pm! They only take about an hour and by 6:00PM I can have warm breadsticks to go with my favorite soup or pasta recipe or whatever! This recipe is a combination of two similar recipes from two very reliable sources, so I adopted it as my own! Thanks Kristen and Melanie! If you want to see a picture, click here!

HELPFUL HINT: So before I start the recipe, I have to share something I was taught that has been priceless when it comes to bread making! In all of the recipes that use yeast, it says to combine yeast with "warm water." What in the world does that mean? The word "warm" means different things to different people! To my mom's dishwater-ravaged hands "warm" water burns mine! So a very skilled bread-and-roll-master friend of mine (she's over 70...oh how we need to learn from the wiser generation) says that you need to turn on the tap and let the water run over the inside of your wrist (the same place where you would shake a baby's bottle of milk to test it.) If it feels too hot to give it to a baby to drink, you will kill the yeast. If it feels too cold to give to a baby, it won't effectively activate the yeast. (For you thermometer happy people...it's about 110 degrees.) So there you have it! The definition of "warm water!" Thanks Kathryn!

1 1/2 cups warm water
1 Tablespoon yeast
2 Tablespoons sugar
3 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
Butter for pan (4-8 Tablespoons depending on how gooey you want to make them!)

Dissolve yeast in warm water. Add sugar and let it sit and bubble for a few minutes. Add the flour and salt. Knead for 3 minutes (adding a little more flour if needed.) Let dough rest for 10 minutes. Melt butter and pour on a cookie sheet. Roll dough on a floured surface, about the size of the cookie sheet. Cut rolled dough to desired width ( I sometimes cut mine in half length-wise as well to make make more and make them easier to work with.) Return dough to the original shape on the cookie sheet by rolling each piece in the butter on the pan and twisting the dough or laying it flat. Sprinkle with garlic salt, Parmesan cheese, and parsley (or whatever.) Let rise about 15-30 minutes. Bake at 375 for about 20 minutes or until golden. These come out puffy and soft, but if you want them thin and crunchy, use dough to roll out enough to fill 1 1/2 cookie sheets. Enjoy!