Homemade Pizza Tutorial

For the past two years, I've been making homemade pizza for dinner, every Friday night. Although I love to make dinner for my family, I find myself getting excited each Friday when I realize it is "pizza night", because it is such an easy dinner to prepare - - it almost makes me feel like I have the night off from cooking. Besides that, it is sooo much better than any frozen pizza pizza you'll buy, and much cheaper than take-out.

I had a lot of comments on my post about Chicago Deep Dish Pizza last week, so I thought I would take you through the simple process, so that you can try it for yourself.

The method I use requires a bread machine, because I am a bread machine kind of girl, and I make no excuses for it! I realize that there are some bread purists out there who don't think that bread made with the aid of a machine is "real" bread. I beg to differ (and I'm pretty sure my husband and children would, too)! I've had my $35.00 bread machine for 7 years, and it is just starting to wear out on me. That's pretty good, considering that I use it 2-3 times per week. Check your local thrift shop, too - - I see bread machines there all the time, usually for $5.00 or so.

I have always made whole wheat crust, with added oats and flax, but a few weeks ago I came across a great recipe for white crust. Now I'm rotating that with my wheat crust, every other week.

Okay, on to the pizza. Here is what you'll need:

1 1/3 cup warm water

2 tsp. sugar

1 1/4 tsp. salt

2 Tbsp. olive oil

2 Tbsp. corn meal (plus more for dusting pizza pans)

3 1/4 cups flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1/2 tsp. onion powder

1/2 tsp. dried basil

1 1/2 tsp. yeast

Place ingredients in bread machine in order listed. Select "dough" cycle. When the cycle is complete, remove dough from pan. Punch down, and divide into two equal portions.

Roll each portion out and place onto pizza pan that has been dusted with cornmeal. Twist or pinch the edges to form the crust border. Then, prick the crust with a fork to prevent bubbles (Griffie likes to help with this part).

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Par bake each crust for 8 minutes. Remove from oven. Top with tomato sauce, cheese, and anything else you'd like. Camden and Griffin love turkey pepperoni on their pizza. Steve and I like pesto and fresh mozzarella, or artichoke hearts and feta...obviously the combos are endless. Pop back in the oven for 10 minutes, or until crust is browned to your liking, and cheese is bubbly.

Enjoy!