Pizza, Pizza

Ever since we met, Jon and I have been on a kick to make food/sauces ourselves rather than buy the canned/pre-made version.  First we conquered spaghetti and pizza sauce.  Then pancake mix.  Most recently, alfredo.  Then, this weekend we were walking around Kro-zjay (Kroger) and decided it'd been a long time since we'd made homemade pizza.  Well... mostly homemade.  Up until now, we've made our sauce, but then just bought the mixture to make the crust.  So, this time, we decided to make the pizza from the ground, er... dough up.  I have to say, it's just really nice knowing everything that goes in your food.  

After some googling, I decided on this recipe, but with some change and additions.  So, here is the Nicky-fied version.  It turned out great (and is vehemently hungry boyfriend-approved).

Ingredients

-2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast (aka one 1/4oz packet... I had to google it to make sure)

-1/2 tsp brown sugar

-1 1/2c warm water

-1 tsp salt

-2 tbsp olive oil

-1c whole wheat flour*

-3 1/3c all-purpose flour*

-corn meal (and extra flour) as needed

-parchment paper

Directions

1. In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast and brown sugar in the water and let it sit for 10 minutes (I forgot to let it sit and just realized it... oops.  Oh well.)

2. Add in the salt and oil to the yeast mix and slowly mix in the 2 1/2c of the flour (I used 1c ww and 1 1/2 white)

3. To make less of a mess, cover a bit of open counter with some parchment paper.  Sprinkle some of the remaining flour on the paper and then turn out the dough onto the paper.  Knead the dough (and keep adding flour) until the dough is no longer sticky.  If you want to make two normal-sized pizzas (rather than one "giant" one), divide the dough into two balls and knead accordingly.

4. Place each dough ball into a well-oiled bowl and cover with a kitchen towel.  Let rise for 1 hour.

Before:

After! Ta-Da!

5. Preheat the oven to 425º.  If you're using a pan, oil the surfaces, if not, just get out your stone.  Sprinkle corn meal as desired onto the pan/stone (I like to have a thin coating).

I ended up adding more than is in this photo, FYI.

6. Turn the dough ball out of the bowl onto the baking dish and spread it out to the desired size.  (If you're using a pan, it suggests that you let the dough sit in the pan for 20 minutes before adding toppings... I didn't and it turned out just fine).  Then, add sauce, toppings, and cheese.

7. Bake for 15-20 minutes until the cheese and crust are golden brown.

8. Enjoy!

Jon and I opted for both a stone version and a pan version to see which we like better.  Both turned out really well, but the pan version was harder to cut (and eat without a fork).  I'm lame and forgot to photograph our pan crust pizza, but here's our stone version with ham, pineapple, and olives.  Yum!  PS It even passed the cold pizza test.  Had it for lunch yesterday.  Mmm I love cold pizza...

What are your favorite pizza toppings?  

Are there any foods that you much prefer to make yourself rather than buy pre-made (or vice-versa)?