Making your own Pizza 

Did you ever think about making your own, totally from scratch, 100% homemade pizza? I know that it is much easier to pull one from the freezer, pop it into the oven…. or even just to pick up the phone and have the box with just made pizza brought right to your door. But there are time when you could actually experience the satisfaction of making the whole thing yourself. You are probably wondering what happens if it doesn’t turn out. It will – trust me – just follow this recipe and top it

with whatever you usually love – you will impress your family, your friends and most of all – yourself!

Homemade Pizza:

1 pkg. of active dry yeast

1/4 cup of lukewarm water

1 tablespoon of sugar

1 teaspoon of salt

1 tablespoon of shortening

1 cup of boiling water

2-3/4 cups of flour

3 teaspoons of olive or vegetable oil

Grated Parmesan cheese

12 oz. of Mozzarella cheese

1 (28 oz.) can of tomatoes, drained

Toppings of your choice

Soften yeast in lukewarm water for 10 minutes. Place sugar, salt, shortening and boiling water in a large bowl. Stir until sugar dissolves. Cool to lukewarm, add yeast. Add 1-1/2 cups of flour and beat until smooth. Add remaining flour or enough to make the dough just barely firm enough to handle, knead until smooth on lightly floured board. Divide into thirds, knead each into a smooth ball. Flatten, the roll out with rolling pin until big enough to fill lightly greased 9″ pan or pizza plate. Press up against edges to make a slight trim. Let rise for about 15 minutes; brush lightly with oil. Sprinkle with grated Parmesan cheese, cover with slivers of Mozzarella cheese and pieces of drained tomatoes. Top with pepperoni, mushrooms,green or red peppers, thinly sliced onions…whatever toppings you usually love on a pizza. I like to finish the toppings with a mixture of shredded cheeses to make my pizza really cheesy!

Bake in moderate oven (425F) for 20 to 25 minutes ot until edges of pizza are turning golden brown.

Repeat this process with the other 2 pieces of dough – this recipe will make 3-9″ pizzas.

You will probably notice that I didn’t include pizza sauce in the recipe. If you like sauce on the pizza, it’s OK to add it – spread the pizza sauce over your crust first, then follow up with the rest of the process. Personally, I feel that it isn’t needed, the canned tomatoes work really well.

Suggested Toppings:

• Green or red chopped peppers
• White or red thinly sliced onions
• Pepperoni, crisp bacon pieces, chopped ham, cooked ground beef, chopped chicken or any other meat of your choice
• Stuffed green olives
• Anchovies (if you really like them)
• Cut up shrimp
• Vegetables – like chopped broccoli

Let me know how this recipe worked for you and what you used for toppings – it is a lot of fun to get creative and make varieties of pizzas.

And one more note: You can make the dough ahead of time, make small balls and freeze them. When you are defrosting them, leave either in the fridge overnight or in room temperature until completely defrosted.

Related articles:

• Back To Basics: 12 Ways To Prepare Ground Beef (thekitchn.com)
• Pizza Hot Dish (lisacooking.com)
• 5 Things (simplycooking.wordpress.com)