Homemade Pizza

Who does not love Pizza? Well there may be few people who may not love it, but we definitely do, except for the guilt of stuffing ourselves with that amount of cheese, we are all in for it, anytime. 

Pizza making is not as big a deal as I had thought of. One day when I finally thought of trying it , it came out so good that it just vanished.

One good thing about making it at home is that you get to have it piping hot right from the oven and also you could go with certain specifications. While I was pregnant with Jordan, I used to crave for pizzas but being not sure about the type of cheese(pasteurized/unpasteurized) that goes into store bought pizzas made me stay away from it. 

These easy to make pizza serves as a great option to be had as snacks or may be as a meal too. Try it and I hope you love it.

Ingredients

1. 2 cups of all purpose flour
2. 3 tbsp of olive oil
3. 1 1/2 tsp of yeast
4. 3/4 cup of lukewarm water
5. 21/2 tbsp of sugar
6. 3/4 tsp of salt

Toppings

1. Pizza sauce
2. Grated mozzarella or parmesan cheese
3. Sliced onions, bell peppers, sausages, mushrooms, jalapeño peppers etc.

Method

• In a small bowl, take the warm water, sugar and yeast. Mix it and leave it aside for about 5-10 minutes for the yeast to rise.
• In another large bowl, take the all purpose flour, salt and olive oil. Add the yeast mixture and mix it well to form a dough. 
• Remove it on to a floured kitchen counter top and keep adding flour (if sticky) while you knead it. Knead it well for about 2-3 minutes until it results in a smooth soft ball of dough. Transfer it into a greased bowl and cover it to leave it in a warm place. Let it rise and double in size (about 1-2 hrs). 
• Punch down the dough and form balls of dough as per the size of the pizza pan you would be using.
• Place a ball of dough on a pan (floured with cornmeal or semolina /greased with olive oil) and flatten it starting from the center and working outside, using your fingertips, till you spread it all through the pan. The sides should remain thick. You could shape it using your palms. Poke all over  the dough base using a fork, so that they do not inflate when baked.
• Now spread 1 1/2 - 2 tbsp of pizza sauce over the pizza dough and spread the cheese and toppings as required.
• Prepare the oven by preheating it to 450 F. 
• Bake the pizza in the oven for about 10-15 minutes or until the crust is golden brown and cheese is melted and bubbling.
• Remove from the oven and let it cool a little. Slice and serve it with sauce and aerated drinks.

Tips

1. You could prepare the dough a day in advance to use it the next day.
2. You could add the toppings of your choice. Other than the toppings mentioned above, you could use, grilled chicken pieces, pepperoni, tomatoes etc.
3. Do not use too much of topping on the pizza  dough, else it may result in a soggy base rather than a crust one.
4. I didn't have a pizza pan to bake the pizza, so I used a cast iron pan and it did work well.