Homemade Pizza Recipe

A while back, I had a strong craving for pizza and I was determined to make my own from scratch. I didn’t really want to go out and buy pizza nor did we want to eat the pre-made frozen ones. We normally buy pre-made pizza dough for $2-3 at an independent grocery store but since this was such a last minute decision, it was already closed. Desperate and determined to make pizza from scratch, we settled on pre-made pizza dough from Fresh Co. Never again…. The final product was a very dense and extra chewy dough that lacked good flavour. Though the toppings were delicious, the dough/crust just ruined it for us. We were both extremely disappointed.

Hence round 2! I was determined that I could make a better pizza dough than the one we bought at a chain grocery store and man, it was definitely a lot better! I’m never paying for pre-made pizza dough ever again that’s all I’m saying. And the final product?

OMG. Beautiful :’) Nothing beats homemade pizza. I mean, check out the crust below.

When it comes to pizza crust, it all comes down to personal preference. I prefer a slightly thicker crust because I like something to chew on, but my bf likes thin crust pizza. It all worked out at the end because this recipe makes 2 pizzas so we made a thin crust one, and a thicker crust one 🙂

Here’s how we did it:

I pre-made the dough the night before to help the dough develop some extra flavour. When I went to check on it the next morning, it doubled in volume and was super soft and fluffy! Just to note, you don’t have to make the dough the night before. You can make it the day of and just allow it to go through the typical 1 hr proof (or until dough has doubled in volume) but I like to make it ahead of time so that it develops extra flavour and so that I don’t have to wait as long to make the pizza the day of.

The great thing about pizza is that it doesn’t require a second proof. Once you knock all the air out of the dough, it’s ready to be shaped and stretched. Instead of going for a conventional round pizza, we tried to make a rectangular one.

Not the most perfectly shaped pizza but you know…. we’re going for the artisanal look 🙂 The main reason we made it rectangle in shape was because we didn’t have a pizza peel or a proper pizza stone so we did the makeshift way of preheating a baking tray (flipped upside down) in the oven and using that as our pizza stone. We used the back of another baking tray as the pizza peel to help slide the pizza onto our makeshift pizza stone.

Now the fun part, toppings! You guys can get super creative here but since I am a meat-atarian, I like to have extra meat on my pizza 🙂 We also have a basil plant which was growing outta control so after giving that plant a hair cut, we decided to use all the extra basil leaves for our pizza. It was sooo fragrant and it really helped enhance the flavour of the pizza.

You might be wondering why the slices of cheese are so large… it’s because we didn’t have a cheese grater on hand so we had to slice it with a knife -_- We’re resourceful so we make it work!

Finally bake it in a super hot oven for 10-15 mins until the crust is golden brown and voila!

Gah the pizza was so good that I couldn’t help but take a bite! Let us know what you like to have as your pizza toppings 🙂

Homemade Pizza Recipe

by cookingwithteamj

Cuisine Italian

Category Italian

Ingredients

For the Pizza Dough:

• 3 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1 tsp sugar
• 2 1/4 tsp dry active yeast
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 cup warm water
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

For the pizza sauce

• 1 1/4 cup tomato sauce
• garlic powder to taste
• salt and pepper to taste
• dried basil and oregano to taste
• 1/2 tsp sugar

Toppings we used

• pepperoni
• Applewood smoked bacon (This is the BEST bacon)
• thinly sliced sweet onion
• mozzarella cheese

Persons

6

Prep Time

1 hour, 10 minutes

Cook Time

15 minutes

Total Time

1 hour, 25 minutes

Instructions

Pizza Dough:

• 1. Whisk together all of the dry ingredients and slowly add in the warm water and olive oil until everything is combined
• 2. Using a dough hook attachment on your stand mixer on speed 2 setting, knead until dough is tacky to the touch, and smooth all over. Approximately 8-10 mins.
• 3. Place dough in a well greased bowl and cover with saran wrap. place it in the fridge and allow to rise overnight.

Pizza sauce:

• 1. Combine all ingredients and adjust seasoning to taste.

Assembling the pizza

• 1. Preheat the oven to 475F with an upside down baking sheet inside (or a pizza stone if you have one)
• 2. Take the risen dough out of the bowl and lightly coat in flour. Split dough into two to make the two pizzas.
• 3. Flatten the dough on a well floured surface to knock out the air and start shaping your pizza to its desired shape (whether it be round or rectangular). You can definitely utilize the dough stretching technique where you use your knuckles to stretch out the dough if you feel comfortable. Alternatively, some people using a rolling pin to get the job done.
• 4. Leave the outer edges slightly thick to help develop that crust (if you want a thicker crust). Place the stretched dough on the back of lightly floured upside down baking sheet so that you can easily transfer the pizza into the oven later
• 5. Top the pizza with pizza sauce and topping. Once the oven is preheated, slide your pizza onto your pizza stone or upside down baking sheet and bake for 10-15 mins until the edges turn golden brown.

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Tags

bacon,

Basil,

cheese,

dough,

homemade pizza,

pepperoni