Friday night Pizza and a Movie

My friend Abby asked for my pizza recipe.  She said that it would be wonderful if I put it on the blog, so that she could just print it out.  This is for Abby and anyone else who loves good pizza!

For the last 15 years or so, our family has instituted "Pizza and a Movie" night every Friday.  When we lived closer to town, we had pizza delivered, which was a wonderful break for me, but since moving to the little town we live near now, pizza delivery has not been an option.  In our quest to keep "Pizza and a Movie" night, I have learned to make my own pizza, and, to tell the truth, rather like it better than pizza joint pizza anyway!

I have learned little tricks along the way by reading many different methods of making pizza and have come up with a method that works really well for us.  It starts with "Light Pizza Dough" out of The King Arthur Flour Cookbook (one of my personal favorites).  Here is the recipe....

Light Pizza Dough

1 3/4 C warm Water
1 T Sugar
1 T Yeast
5 C All-purpose Flour
1/4 C Olive Oil
1 T Salt

"Sponging"

Combine warm water (I use tap water as warm as it comes), sugar, olive oil, salt and yeast.  Let "sponge" (allow it puffy and bubbly) for 1/2 an hour to an hour, or longer if you want.  Add flour (I start with about 3 1/2 cups and add flour until I have a nice, soft dough) and kneed for about 10 minutes (5 minutes if using a mixer or Bosch).  Turn dough into an olive oil coated bowl to rise.  At this point, you may coat plastic wrap with olive oil and wrap dough loosely in wrap and put the dough in the refrigerator.  It can slowly rise in the frigde all day and be set out to rise on the counter for about an hour before you want to make pizza. This makes the dough light and tender and really enhances the flavor.  After the dough has risen to double the size, punch down and cut in half and roll out on two pizza stones.  I love pizza stones for making pizza.  The crust is light and crispy.  Cast iron skillets work well also.

Rising Dough

After rolling dough onto the stones, brush olive oil over the surface of the dough.  This makes a huge difference in the crust.  After brushing with olive oil, we spread minced garlic over the pizza dough.  After the garlic, we spread a little pizza sauce (don't go over-board!).  Next comes the cheese.  We use Mozzarella, but you can use whatever you like.  Add toppings, such as pepperoni, Italian sausage, onions, peppers, olives, mushrooms - whatever.  Add a little more cheese, to hold all of the toppings in place.  Let your pizza dough rise for another 1/2 hour then pop into a preheated 425 degree oven.  Bake for about 20 minutes.  Enjoy!

Adding the toppings

Pizza, fresh out of the oven!