WFMW: Homemade Pizza

I don’t usually participate in Works for Me Wednesday, but I have decided to today. My posts have been a little deep of late and my brain needs a rest.

I try to keep a sour dough starter in my refrigerator. I can’t remember to feed it. One day I was out blog-spotting and read about a mom who had Sour Dough Pizza Night once a week. Using my starter would make it way easier to remember to feed it! I tried this. It worked like a charm. Sadly, my family didn’t care for sour dough pizza. So, I am back to trying to remember to feed my starter. I want to be prepared for those once in a blue-moons when I am in the mood for sour dough bread.

While the sour-dough part was not a homemaking hit, the idea of having homemade pizza once a week scored major mom-of-the-year points. In fact, it is quite annoying. I always tell newlyweds that if they do not want to continue to do something the rest of their life, they shouldn’t even start. Pizza night has become an expectation. Once, when Ron was out of town, Marissa and I ordered a pizza to be delivered to our home. What used to be adequate and even enjoyable tasted as if it were served on cardboard.

I like to complain. I even like to be able to vary my menu without having everyone at my table whine. But, I must admit making pizza is easy. You will have to decide how to manage which toppings yourself. I know some moms, cool ones, make everyone an individual pizza and allow each family member to build their own pizza. This takes a lot of preparation and I am not that cool. We take turns picking our favorite.

My favorite pizza:

Crust:

• 1-cup warm water
• 1-tablespoon sugar
• 1-packet (2-1/4 teaspoons) of yeast
• 3-cups bread flour
• 1-teaspoon salt
• 1-tablespoon of olive oil

Dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water. Set aside. Combine flour and salt in a large bowl. I usually add 1/2-teaspoon each of garlic powder and Italian seasoning, but this is a personal preference and not a written-in-stone part of the recipe. Create a well in the center of the dry ingredients. Add olive oil and yeast mixture. Stir until a ball forms. Knead by hand at least 5 minutes. (I knead my dough inside the large bowl. This is much easier to clean up then flour on your counter.) Lightly oil the ball of dough. Cover the bowl with a dish towel and allow the dough to rise for about 1 hour. The ball should have doubled in size.

Prior to shaping the crust, turn your oven on to 475-degrees. It is time to shape the crust. I have to say that this was the hardest thing I had to learn when I started making pizza. My first pizzas tasted good, but they didn’t look pretty. Rather than try to explain the method that works for me, I am going to link to a YouTube video using my preferred method. The recipe that is used in this video is different from mine, but I shape my crust with my fingers onto a large pizza pan. I do not own a pizza stone.

Nothing in life can exist without etiquette rules. There is a prescribed order for your pizza toppings. Proceed to top your pizza in the following order: sauce/oil, cheese, toppings, more cheese. My favorite toppings are spinach, feta cheese and sun-dried tomatoes.

Topping:

• Brush with olive oil (I used about 2-tablespoons of the oil that the sun-dried tomatoes were packed in. Oh, and I added about 1/4-teaspoon of garlic powder)
• 1-cup mozarella cheese
• 10-oz package of frozen, chopped spinach (Thawed. Squeeze out extra water. Obviously, you can substitute fresh spinach!)
• 4-oz feta cheese
• Sun-dried tomatoes, thinly sliced (I actually cut them with my kitchen shears)
• Red onions, thinly sliced
• Last, 1-cup of mozzarella

Bake at 475-degrees for about 10 minutes or until crust is golden brown.

For a printable recipe: click here

Hat Tip: The inspiration for this blog entry is Bonnie Winters of Ink It Blog. She wrote about God investing time to knead and shape us into something wonderful in her “In ‘Other’ Words” post, Mmmmmm…Pizza.