Homemade pizza

The boys love pizza so I make it often.  I often use pureed veggies as a base for a sauce, usually defrosted & drained spinach pureed up with a spoonful of pesto or alfredo sauce.  Other times I grate slightly steamed broccoli or carrots and scatter them over the sauce before topping with cheese.

A family favorite is chicken, spinach and artichoke pizza. This uses a couple spoonfuls of alfredo pureed up with spinach as sauce. One cooked and chopped chicken breast is usually enough for an average pizza.  I make an extra one when we have chicken for dinner so I have one handy later in the week. The artichokes are a small jar of quartered marinated heartes in oil.  Not the canned ones. The jarred ones have a better texture.  I chop them up small. The boys are more likely to eat small toppings rather than big ones (I chop pepperonis into 8ths for them). I also top it with extra defrosted and drained spinach. Sometimes the boys pick it off, sometimes they don't, which is why I puree it into the sauce as well.

These are the crust recipes I use:

This one makes a decent sized pizza of average thickness.

2 teas sugar

2 teas salt

1 tlbs olive oil

3/4 c water - warmish

2 c flour

1 teas yeast

This one makes 2 12' pizzas of average to thin thickness or one rather large thick crust pizza

2 1/4 teas yeast

1 1/3 c water - warmish

3 1/2c flour

2 tbls olive oil

1 tlbs salt

1 tbls sugar

For both recipes mix all the ingredients together and knead for 10 minutes. Let them rise for about 2 hours in a warmish place (I use my microwave oven, nice even temp inside and doesn't take up any more counter space). I've found the dough is pretty forgiving of longer rises, I've left it for up to 5 hours & the only real change I noticed was a crisper crust when cooked, even the thick crust version. Then punch it down and roll, toss or otherwise stretch it out to size. cover with a dishtowel & let sit for 30 minutes

Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 475.

You can at this point top it and bake it for 10-12 minutes.  I however bake the bare crust for 5 minutes, let it cool for about 10-15 minutes, then top it and bake it for another 5-7 minutes. You get a good crisp crust this way and it's easier to get off the pizza paddle and into the oven.

This dough is also sturdy enough to go on the grill, use the same temperature, but make small individual pizzas and knock a couple minutes off the cook time.