Pizza Dough

I have been playing with different pizza dough recipes for ages now! I have always made pizza at home whenever I can and it has worked out to about once a week and it is pretty tasty. However, with the stand mixer not working, I am limited to things I can make by hand. With that in mind, I was thrilled to find a recipe for pizza dough yesterday that can all be made by hand! I did have to knead it for 10 minutes by hand, but since it was either that or strangle somebody, kneading dough seemed like a good alternative.

The recipe, like most, was found on allecipes.com and was Jay’s Signature Pizza Crust. It turned out great! I did pre—bake the crust, because I usually do that and it makes it much easier to move around and cook it. Since I only have one pizza stone and usually make two pizzas, the pre-bake is key for me. I have a pizza stone from pampered chef, which I LOVE, but it says not to pre-heat it, which is standard for most pizza stones. So I did not, but since I only have one stone, I prebake one crust, take it out of the oven, slide it onto a pizza peel (which I also LOVE), put the other crust on the stone, prebake that crust, and take that one out and leave it on the stone. When the crusts are both out of the oven, but only pre-baked, I add the sauce, cheese, and toppings to each. One stays on the peel while the last one stays on the stone.

Then, bake them both at the same time in the oven. With the pre-baked crust, the one on the peel usually slides off onto one of the racks, although it is not easy, so it takes some shimmying. Since it is pre-baked a little, I usually set the timer on the low side of what is needed and then check it a few times before it is done just to make sure it doesn’t get overdone. This works quite well and although it takes a little time and effort, it is SO MUCH better than delivery and you can make it exactly how you want it. I do get Take ‘n Bake from Papa Murphy’s (with a coupon!) when I am too lazy to make the crust. With the price of cheese now, it can be a better deal to buy pizza sometimes!

Kristen is also the author is Kristen is Organized! and loves to organize herself and others as well as experiment in the kitchen!