Monday Meals: the easiest pizza ever!

We are the same as most American families in that we love pizza! But that’s about where it stops. We have enough people who actually eat in our house that buying those frozen pizza’s really isn’t a cheap idea, not to mention they really aren’t that great. There is a place that will deliver pizza here in town, but it’s even more expensive for our size family than the frozen pizza idea.

So what is a mother to do? Make my own, I guess. When I first came to that realization, I got tired just thinking about it! For one thing, I usually don’t have enough fore-thought to start the dough a few hours before hand, not to mention the fact that the whole kneading process doesn’t interest me in the least. Truth be told, I’m a bit lazy and as much as I love to cook, there are often other things I’d rather be doing.

However, I couldn’t escape from the cold hard fact that the natives were calling for pizza, so I went on a quest to find a good (and quick!) dough recipe. But I couldn’t find it. Ugh! I then threw up my hands, rolled up my sleeves and concocted my own recipe. After several tries, and just as many changes to the recipe, I have perfected that sought after crust.

This dough takes 15 minutes to rise. Seriously! That’s it!

And now I will share it with you. (Please keep in mind that this recipe easily feeds my family of 9 eaters. Adjust the amounts for your family accordingly)

Easy Pizza Dough

3 cups warm water

3 Tbs sugar

7 tsp  dry, active yeast ( or 3 packages)

9 Tbs oil (1/2 cup + 1 Tbs), olive or veg. oil

3 tsp salt

7 1/2 cups all purpose flour

optional: dried oregano, basil, and/or garlic to taste

Directions:

1. (If you are using dry, active yeast then there is no need to proof it. Plus, there is enough in this recipe that it wouldn’t matter anyway.) Add you water, yeast, salt, and sugar into your mixer bowl. Turn it on medium speed and then add the oil (add the dried herbs/garlic at this point if using). Add the flour a bit at a time, until it is all well mixed.

2. There is no kneading required, so cover your mixer bowl (or scrap the dough into a larger one if your mixer bowl is a small one) with plastic wrap and place in a warm place for about 15 minutes, or until doubled in size.

3. At this point, you need to make a choice: do you want a pan of pizza or individual ones? If a pan of pizza is what you want, then pat out the dough into whatever well oiled pan of your choice (this size recipe will fit a 18 x 24 sheet pan). Sauce and top it.

OR

3. My children love to “make their own”, so we always go that route.* Once the dough is doubled in size, dump out of the bowl onto a well floured surface. Divide the dough into equal portions (this size recipe is yields 8 – 10 portions) and spread out to desired thickness and size. This dough will rise more in the oven, so keep that in mind when patting out you dough. Lay down parchment paper, then place each pizza disk onto a pan, sauce each individual pizza and top as desired. If you don’t have parchment paper, oil your pan first. (I place each pizza on parchment paper and label the paper who’s pizza is who’s.)

4. Bake your pizza( s ) in a 350 degree oven for about 10 – 15 minutes.

5. Cut and enjoy!

* If the weather is nice, we like to get the grill going and use it for baking our pizzas. The baking time is less than in the oven, so keep an eye on them, otherwise you’ll burn them. The pizza dough is firm enough that it doesn’t fall through the grill.

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