Poco Mountain Girl

After trying a few different styles of pizza crust, this has become our favorite. I’ve pulled some ideas from recipes online and added a few of my mother’s tips on making bread dough, which is surprisingly similar to pizza dough.

The pizza sauce recipe is also really yummy–I culled it from a Southern Living magazine in the free section of our library.

Have the sauce all ready before you make the pizza dough–you’ll be glad you did!

Zesty Pizza Sauce

Chop 1 large onion and 4 garlic cloves.

Saute in 2 Tbsp. hot olive oil in a large saucepan for 10 minutes or till tender.

Stir in 1 (28 oz.) can diced tomatoes, 1 Tbsp. dried Italian seasoning, 3/4 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper, and 1/4 tsp dried crushed red pepper.

Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, and simmer, stirring occasionally, 1 hour.

Let stand 15 minutes. Process sauce in a blender or food processor until smooth.

Pizza Dough (makes 2 pizzas)

1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour

1 1/4 cups white flour

1 pkg active dry yeast

1 T sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup very warm water, divided

1 T olive oil

Directions

Mix sugar into half of the warm water.

Sprinkle yeast on top.

Wait 10 minutes till it gets foamy.

Pour into a large bowl and add the other half cup of water, olive oil, salt and flours.

Mix to combine.

Knead on a floured board for 8-10 minutes. Dough will be smooth and elastic. You may need to add a little more flour.

Cover and let it rest in a warm place until dough doubles in size (about an hour).

Lightly grease pizza pans or cookie sheets and sprinkle with a little cornmeal (or flour).

Divide dough in half and pat evenly over each pan until it reaches the edge. Try to make it a little thicker around the edge.

You can pre-bake the crust at 425 for 10 minutes (makes it a little crispier) if you want to – it comes out good either way.

Spread with pizza sauce and add toppings such as mozzarella cheese, pepperoni, mushrooms, green peppers, etc.

Bake for 10-20 minutes or till cheese is golden and bubbly.

Mmmm…enjoy!

This entry was posted on Monday, October 31st, 2011 at 7:52 am and is filed under Cooking, Recipes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.