If you’re intimidated by making homemade pizza crust, now’s the time to come out of your shell.

I found this pizza crust recipe about a year ago and it’s been a go-to ever since.  I love it for three reasons; it’s super easy to make, it’s fun for the kids to roll out the dough and add the toppings, and it tastes great.

I adapted it by incorporating whole wheat flour into the dough, and using garlic salt and olive oil to brush the crust.  The recipe is amazing just how the original author wrote it and I know a lot of people don’t keep whole wheat flour in the pantry so if that’s the case, just use 100% all purpose flour like the original recipe calls for. 🙂

 

To begin you activate the yeast.  No yeast?  No problem!  You can pick up a little red sleeve of it in the baking aisle for about $1. 🙂

Lucky me, my camera focused on the stand mixer instead of the the bowl…

 

 

Once you’ve mixed the pizza dough, transfer it to a separate, lightly oiled bowl and let it double in size for about 45 minutes.

 

Like this. 🙂

 

It’s important to have child helpers because as I said before, it’s fun for them to help!  My niece Anna is in the blue shirt, and of course you know my daughter Belle.  They are INSEPARABLE!!

 

You can roll out the dough in a number of ways.  Directly on a pizza stone, or a pizza tray…. directly on your floured counter top, or on a large cutting board.

Or!!

You can roll it on parchment paper lightly floured with cornmeal and flour, and then transfer it to the pre-heated pizza stone just before baking.

Note:  Only use the latter method if you halved the dough to make two thin crusts.  If you use the whole ball of dough for a thick crust pizza, then once you add the toppings it’ll be too heavy to transfer and you might find yourself in a pickle… 🙂

 

 

And after the girls added toppings – they made half of it “double-pepperoni” for my husband, the pepperoni monster.

The toppings included pizza sauce (recipe to follow in a separate blog), mozzarella cheese and Hormel pepperonis.

 

“PIZZA:  The perfect meal.  An open-faced pie using tomato sauce, cheese, and any manner of toppings.  Tastes like heaven and is sometimes stated to be better than a relationship.”

 

Pour warm (almost hot!) water into a mixing bowl and then pour in the yeast, sugar and honey.  Let it sit for five minutes.  After five minutes gently mix it until everything is dissolved.

Next add the salt, Italian seasoning and oil.  Give another gentle mix.

Now add the flour beginning with 2 1/2 cups (whole wheat is optional but if using, sub 1/4 cup).  Using the dough hook, mix the dough on low speed until combined.  If the dough sticks to the side of the bowl add a couple tablespoons of flour until it no longer sticks.  Once the dough is no longer sticking to the bowl mix on low speed for another two minutes.

In a separate bowl, coat all sides with olive oil and then place the dough in it and let it rise until doubled in size, about 45 minutes.

To bake:  Preheat oven and pizza stone to 450 F.  Roll out the dough on a piece of parchment paper lightly coated with flour (do half cornmeal if you have it).  Roll the crust to 12″.  After adding toppings, bake for 10-12 minutes.

Brush the crust with a combo of 1 T. olive oil, and 1/2 teaspoon garlic salt.  Serve!!