Homemade pizza is a meal I make often for my family and guests. When I was growing up, my mom used to make homemade pizza from scratch. I've made it completely from scratch before, but ever since we got a bread machine many years ago, I've made my dough in a bread machine.
Recently I was cleaning out the drawer where we store all the pizza pans. I came across several pans that I haven't used for awhile and decided to try out the different pans to compare the crusts.
I have one pan with holes in the bottom that is supposed to make a crispy crust, a cooking stone which is supposed to be very good to cook on, and an air bake cookie sheet.
Here is my pizza dough recipe (got it from my brother-in-law Jeff years ago)
Add 1-1/3 cup of hot water and 2 tb. of olive oil to the bread machine (I usually use regular oil),
Add 4 cups of flour to the water, oil mixture. (The recipe calls for bread flour, however, it works just fine with regular flour too). On top of the flour, add 2 teaspoons of salt, 2 tablespoons of sugar, then make a little "well" in the top and put 2 teaspoons of yeast in it. The yeast is not supposed to touch the water until the mixing starts.
Add 4 cups of flour to the water, oil mixture. (The recipe calls for bread flour, however, it works just fine with regular flour too). On top of the flour, add 2 teaspoons of salt, 2 tablespoons of sugar, then make a little "well" in the top and put 2 teaspoons of yeast in it. The yeast is not supposed to touch the water until the mixing starts.
When the timer beeps, take out the dough immediately. If you wait too long, the dough will rise and stick to the cover of the machine and makes a mess. (I've done it!) Both of our bread machines take an hour and thirty minutes to make the dough.
When the timer goes off, it should look like this!
If I'm in a hurry, I sometimes take out the dough early (after everything is mixed together), but the crust just isn't the same.
Normally I divide the dough into 2 balls and let them rise. This time, I divided it into 3 sections.
I sprayed my pizza pans and then let each ball of dough rise on the pan for about 20-25 minutes. If I have the oven on, I put them on top of the stove with a towel draped over them.
I have a small roller that I dip in flour and then roll the dough right in the pan. I stretch the dough a little with my hands first and then use my roller for the rest.
I rolled out all three and then decided on toppings. I use all kinds of toppings on my pizzas--usually whatever leftovers I have in the fridge. This time, I made one bbq chicken pizza, one broccoli and chicken with (bacon-flavored!) alfredo sauce pizza, and one broccoli pizza with alfredo sauce.
Other toppings I have used are ham and pineapple (one of our favorites), spinach, sausage, bacon, and many other things that I have found in the fridge. The kids like almost anything on a pizza!
For the baking stone, I spread about 3-4 tablespoons of the cheese sauce on the dough, then I topped it with broccoli. Then I top with mozzarella cheese (lots of it!), and that
one was finished. Bake each pizza at 425 degrees for 15-17 minutes until cheese is slightly brown..
I made this one first because I've heard that the stone keeps the food warm for a long period of time. I think it worked because it was still warm when we sat down to eat.
The next pizza pan I used was the air-bake pan. I spread bacon alfredo sauce on this one also and put broccoli and some cooked chicken on this one.
Finally, I put barbeque sauce on the dough on the pan with holes in it. Hoping for a crispy crust!
My 9 yr old decided she wanted to make a little pizza of her own on the side.
I added chicken next, then lots of cheese!
Now for the taste test!
Yum! It worked very well! All three pizzas turned out yummy, however, I liked this one the best! The crust was slightly crispy and I think I will use this pan again next time!
