Basic pizza

This was spawned from my perfect white bread recipe.  I made a double batch of the dough for Super Bowl Sunday.  I made a loaf of white bread with half and then used the other half to make some hamburger rolls and pizza dough.  The pizza wound up being a huge hit and hubby wanted me to make another the next night!

To start this recipe, make the dough in the previous post.  After the last rise, knead it out until it's still a bit sticky but not so sticky that you can't work with it.  You'll probably add another half to three quarters cup of flour in the process.

Put dough on a floured surface and roll it to the thickness you like your pizza dough.  The dough / crust will rise some when you cook, so keep that in mind.  If you like super, super thin crusts you'll want this as paper thin as you can get it.  Also remember that the thicker you like your crust, the lower the temp you'll want to cook it on and the longer you'll need to bake it.  We like ours half way between paper thin and thick crust.

Once your dough is rolled out, you'll want to butter the sheet or pan you'll bake it on.  I use a cookie sheet.  I also make my dough square.  I don't waste time tossing it in the air, attempting to get a perfect rough pizza dough.  The easiest way to move the dough, especially if it's super thin, is to fold it and then lift.  Transfer to one end of the sheet or pan and unfold in place.

Add a thin layer of sauce.  I use cheap basic spaghetti sauce for ours and keep it as thin as I can.  We don't like a lot of sauce on ours.  Next add your mozzarella cheese.  For a small pizza we use two cups of finely shredded cheese.  Hubby likes a lot of cheese, so about two thirds of the cheese goes on his half.

Next your toppings.  Hubby likes his plain, boring cheese.  I like a lot of veggies on mine but also add pepperoni or roast chicken or ham, depending on my mood.

Bake pizza for roughly 30 minutes at 375 for a medium thickness crust.  I've found that timing it by the looks of the crust and cheese is the best indicator.  Just remember if you've got a really thin crust you'll want to back the temp down to around 300-325 and for a super, super thick crust you'll want to bump it up between 400-450.

You can also melt some butter and toss in some garlic and brush that on the crust before you bake it as well.  Sprinkling some parmesan cheese on the crust can be yummy too!