How To Make Easy Homemade Pizza

My family's favorite food is pizza. As you know, pizza from the pizza man is expensive so I started making my own easy homemade pizza. If you don't have a bread machine, buy one. They make delicious pizza dough with very little effort.

So pull out your bread machine and add all of the following ingredients in order to your bread maker pan:

1 3/4 cups room temperature water (Do not use hot water or you will kill the yeast.)

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

4 tablespoons olive oil

5 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup sugar

4 tablespoons active dry yeast

Set your bread maker to the Dough setting and push the start button. It should take about 1 1/2 hours for your bread maker to make the dough.

Once the dough is finished, remove the pan from your bread maker. If it rose a little too high and there is dough on the top of your bread maker, clean it off with a wet cloth right away for easier clean-up. Mine does this everytime.

If you have pizza stones from Pampered Chef or something similar, pull them out and get them ready. You will need two of them. If you do not have pizza stones, pull out two large pizza pans.

There is no need to spray the stones with non-stick cooking spray. If you are using pizza pans, by all means, spray them with the non-cooking spray.

Pull the pizza dough out of the bread maker pan and divide it in half. Put one half of the dough in the center of each stone or pan. Spray your hands with cooking spray and begin to flatten the ball of dough with the palms of your hands, stretching the dough out to cover the entire pan, leaving about 1/4" at the edge of the pan. You may need to spray your hands again to finish. Sometimes, the dough gets a tear in it. If so, patch it up so the sauce does not fall through. Try to keep the dough an even thickness. Once you are finished making both pizza crusts, clean up your hands and get ready to assemble your pizza.

Some people make their own pizza sauce. I do not. Buy two jars of pizza sauce at the grocery store. It is usually in the same aisle as the spaghetti sauce, only it has a thicker consistency than spaghetti sauce.

Pour one jar of pizza sauce in the middle of each pizza. Spread evenly over the dough with a spatula, almost to the edge of the dough, leaving about 1/4" plain for the crust's edge.

Toppings are up to you since everyone loves different things. Here is what I do. I buy bags of pizza blend cheese so there are several cheeses on the pizza. Before any toppings, I put a thin layer of the pizza blend cheese on each pizza. Then sprinkle with parmesan cheese. Next, I put Canadian bacon slices  or pepperoni slices on the pizzas. Then I put sliced raw mushrooms on each pizza.

Some additional toppings that you can put on at this time are cooked ground hamburger, pork, or turkey, sliced tomato, sliced onion, sliced red or green pepper, jalapenos, and pineapple chunks. Pineapple chunks are wonderful with Canadian bacon.

After all of your toppings have been added, put more pizza blend cheese on each pizza, the more the better. Yum...

While you are decorating your pizzas, preheat your oven to 4oo degrees Fahrenheit. Once you are finished with your pizza art, put both pizzas in the oven. I put one on the top rack and the other on the bottom rack at the same time. Bake for about 20 minutes if you are using a pizza pan. If you are baking your easy homemade pizzas on a pizza stone, bake for 25 to 30 minutes, depending on your oven.

My family of five usually goes through both large pizzas in one meal. You can make two large pizzas for about $10, which is quite a savings compared to what you would have to give the pizza man for two larges. Happy Eating!