Pizza Night

One of my favorite meals to make is homemade pizzas. Want to know why?

1. It gives me an excuse to make dessert pizza!

2. My kids will actually eat it!

AND

3. My kids love to help roll out the dough and put the pizzas together.

SO today I had the privilege to make dinner for a friend and her family. I made four batches of pizza dough which made 8 medium size pizzas! I thought I would share my favorite recipes for pizza dough and a few tips I’ve learned along the way!

Let’s start with the pizza dough. I have a favorite recipe to use for regular pizzas and a different recipe to use when making cheese sticks.

For the pizzas, I use a recipe from Lauren’s Latest. It is super easy and quite delicious. It uses water, yeast, honey, salt, olive oil, and bread flour. Lauren does such a good job explaining the process, so I will just give you the link. Click here!

*One note on the pizza dough, I make it in the morning and let it rise until doubled in size. I then put the dough into the refrigerator until I am ready to use it. With four batches of dough today, I had a fridge full! About an hour before I planned to put the pizzas together, I took the dough out and rolled it into the tins pans I had purchased.

*I would recommend prebaking the dough before you add the toppings. Bake about 8 minutes until the dough starts to turn light brown. Then comes the fun….top the pizzas as you desire.

*I would also challenge you to buy a block or two of Parmesan cheese and grate it yourself. It is so much better than the stuff you buy in a bag. Try it…you won’t be disappointed!

For the cheese sticks, I use a little different recipe. It is much thicker and a little sweet…supposed to be like Pizza Hut dough. It uses water, yeast, sugar, salt, flour, and non-fat dry milk. Click here for the recipe!

*I top my cheese stick dough with fresh Parmesan and mozzarella cheese and then bake.

*After baking I like to add a little seasoning. Mix 2 Tablespoons of grated Parmesan(the stuff in a container that you buy), 1 teaspoon garlic powder, and 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning. Sprinkle on hot cheese sticks.

And now for a few pictures….