Pizza's In The House!

Pizza with Italian Sausage, Bacon and Jalapenos

There is just something really cool about making your own pizza from scratch and you know what? It will probably be the best pizza you've ever eaten! Why? Because you did it! I think most people think that making your own pizza is just too much work. Change your perspective and have fun with it. One more thing if you don't have the tools that I mention, don't let that deter you, it can still be done.  Ok, let's get started, preheat your oven to 500 degrees.  If you have a pizza stone, place on the bottom rack and let it heat up in oven for about 1 hr to get it really hot!!  No pizza stone, just use a metal pizza pan.   I would go ahead and get my toppings together, be creative-the possibilities are endless.  One of my favorites is a white pizza with goat, fontina and mozzarella cheeses topped with fresh Arugula. Pizza sauce: You can purchase in a can, my favorite canned sauce is Pastorelli Italian Chef or make your own it's not that hard.  You can even make ahead of time and refrigerate up to 7 days.  Chef's Cat Cora and Tyler Florence both have some really easy and tasty recipes. (If you have the Iphone or Ipad Food Network has a great app and it's free, I definitely recommend it, or just go to Food Network. Yeasts: There are several different types of yeast.  I've used regular slow activating yeast, rapid yeast and yeast specific for pizza. If you are a newbie to making pizza from scratch I would suggest using the yeast specific for pizza, it will cut out a lot of time and effort.  Anyway, they all work great, but if your time is limited use rapid rise or the pizza yeast, both will have very easy directions on the package on how much water, sugar, oil and flour to use.  What ever yeast I use I still like to proof it, but you don't have to if you are using the quick yeasts, I'm just a geek and i like to see the yeast foam up.  If you proof just get about 1/2 C warm water about 120-130 degrees and add sugar, salt and the yeast.  It will take about 5-10 minutes.  In the meantime, I set up my Kitchen Aid with the dough hook. (if you don't have a Kitchen Aid, you'll have to do this by hand.  It will take a bit more time, but just think of it as a labor of love.  Start off with 1 cup of flour to your bowl (If your grocery has it, buy some bread flour, it makes for a really nice chewy crust, otherwise all-purpose flour will be fine), add your yeast mixture, oil and just start mixing.  You will probably end up using about 2 - 2 1/2 C flour overall, just add water a little at a time. You are looking for the dough to form a ball and to pull away from the bowl, keep adding a little flour at at time until the dough is smooth and not sticky at all.  If you don't have a Kitchen Aid you will need to lay dough on floured surface and knead for about 15 minutes.  If you have a Kitchen Aid,  let the dough knead on med speed for about 5 minutes.  Once finished kneading you will place the dough in a oiled bowl, cover and let rest in a warm place for 1 hour - it will double in size, punch down when it's doubled).  Please note that if you're using pizza yeast, you won't have to let the dough rise. Work the dough into a ball and lay out on floured surface.  I would go ahead and cut the dough into 2 equal parts.  The dough makes two 12" pizzas or a thick crusted 16"  I like thin crust.  If you don't want to make 2 pizzas, just triple wrap dough in plastic wrap, freeze and save for another time. You can roll out the dough or use your hands to form a 12" crust, if the dough springs back on you, just give it about 5-10 minutes to relax, it should work fine after that.  At this point, I place a piece of parchment paper on my peel and I place my crust on it, go ahead and add your toppings.  Parchment really helps get the pizza from the peel to the pan or stone.  I found that my pizza always sticks to the peel, and won't slide off onto the stone with ease, so the parchment paper really helps and it makes clean up easier too. Slide your pizza in the oven and back for 8-10 minutes, but baking time really depends on you.  I like my crust a little crunchier and I like my topping to be a bit more golden brown all over, so I keep mine in a little  longer.  Wow!  A lot of info, but don't be afraid- you can do it.  Buon Apetito!