Homemade Pizza

I made my very first homemade pizza. Dough, sauce and all! Rather exciting stuff... some things I would do differently in the future but I will explain that later.

The Recipe:
The Dough
1 cup of warm water (105F)
3 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons of olive oil
2 teaspoons of honey
1 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of yeast

1. Put warm water (80 to 110°F) into a bowl. Add salt and honey and mix with a spoon. Add yeast, mix and let it sit for about 10 minutes.

2. Gradually add flour and olive oil and start mixing.

3. When the mixture gets too heavy to mix, start kneading the dough with your hands.

4. Knead the dough until you have a smooth ball. If the dough cracks it is too dry. Add water bit by bit until if forms a nice coherent ball. If your dough feels more like batter, it is too wet and you need to add flour bit by bit. If you need to add water or flour, do it by small amounts.

5. Coat the dough with olive oil, place it in a large bowl and cover it with kitchen wrap or a grocery bag. Let the doug rise for about an hour at room temperature, then push it down again so it deflates. Let it sit for about another hour. If you want to use it the next day, put it in a refrigerator.



6. Put the dough on a lightly floured surface, put a bit of flour on top and make it into the shape of a pie by stretching it out from the center outwards. Use a rolling pin until the dough is about 1/4" thick. Punch some holes in the dough with a fork to let the air escape while the pizza is in the oven.



7. Put on your pizza sauce of choice (my homemade version below).

8. Put on your favorite pizza toppings.



9. Bake the pizza in you oven at 400 - 450° F for about 20 to 25 minutes until the crust is light brown.



The Sauce
1. 28 oz. of can crushed tomatoes
3 oz. of tomato paste
4 tbsps. Pecorino Romano
1 tsp Oregano
2 tbsps. minced fresh garlic
1 tbsp. black pepper
3 tsps. of sugar
2 teaspoons of dried basil

1. Whisk all together.

2. Allow flavors to blend for one hour before using.

My Experience:
First of all, next time I will make 2 small pizzas rather than one HUMONGOUS crust medium pizza. Clearly there was too much dough lol! Don't judge me lol.



I chose to make stuffed crust pizza because clearly that is the only way it should be done. Very simple. Stretch the dough out a little larger than the pan, sprinkle cheese around the edge, fold over.



Pizza toppings are really as you like. We had cheese, pepperoni, onion, green pepper, mushrooms, and bacon.

And just a side note, the pizza sauce makes more than is needed. BUT it is a really good pasta sauce to finish off the leftovers.

The Ratings:
Joelle's rating: 9/10 she said she would have given it a 10 had it not been for the 2 inch crust
My rating: 9/10 (the crust was a little much...)