Jess's Pizzaria

I still can't make homemade bread.  I have tried and successfully failed many times.  But what I have mastered.. is Pizza crust.  Our family eats a LOT of pizza.  More than we should. Since we quit dining out almost 2 years ago, Pizza was about the only thing we would order out or go to eat somewhere.  I tried a few different ones and eventually asked my buddy Scott, if he knew of ANY good easy no-fail pizza crusts.  He led me here...Mitch's basic pizza dough . I gave it a whirl and he was right.. it was fool proof.  I have made this one over and over many times and its always worked out so I figured I needed to share.

According to the recipe you add the yeast to the water.  I never have regular yeast because really, I don't have time for bread to rise twice, I do have a life and sometimes, I just plain don't start on dinner early enough.  So, using Rapid Rise, which is what I always have on hand, you add the yeast to 1C of the flour and set the other 2.5 C aside.  Then after mixing the water with the honey in my handy dandy KitchenAid mixer until the honey dissolves, I add the 1C of yeast flour to the mixer and let it stir until combined.  Then I just follow the rest of the recipe like usual.

The honey is a huge part of this recipe I think.  It allows the dough to be stiff enough for it not to get soggy under all the ingredients.  It always comes out crispy.  The other thing I like is that I can make 2 batches and it is enough to make 2 pizzas and a cheesy bread, or 7 individual pizzas and a cheesy bread.  That way I can just let each person put their own toppings on or if time is tight, just make two large ones and a cheesy bread.

The other night My husband asked me to make homemade pizza and I sort of sighed, then he asked me why I wasn't flattered that they all wanted MY pizza instead of ordering out.  Needless to say, I got to work.

This is what we ended up with:

Olive and cheese before cooking (For Brent and the girls)

After- You just get more pieces in a square pizza.

To make the cheesy bread, I poke holes in the crust just as I do with the pizza to keep it from bubbling up and then put a small layer of butter over it. I mix some garlic bread sprinkle into the cheese mixture which is just mozzarella and cheddar.

Who cares if it isn't round!

Turkey pepperoni for me, cheese for the boys.

A while back, when Brent was out of town with the two older girls, I made homemade pizza for me and the kidlets.  Of course I made individual ones and they had a blast creating their own.  I love that I was able to calculate what was on my own pizza and it actually came to just a little over 500 calories and I can NEVER finish the whole thing.  To me that is way better than any pizzeria.

It was a lot of fun and the kids like being able to make their very own pizza, so if you need a recipe that is easy and pretty fool proof, then this is a great one to try.