Pizza Night!!

One of our new found loves is "Family Night" where we all pitch in on dinner and then play family games and watch movies. The house is never quiet on game night...well, not on many other nights either- but on game night, there is lots of laughing, yelling and fun! Family night is something we all really look forward to!

This past week, we made yummy homemade pizzas. I couldn't decide which pizza crust recipe I wanted to use so we actually made two different ones. I'll post them separately to make searching easier.

The first recipe we made was Jay's Signature Pizza Crust. This crust had a nice crunch to the outside and was soft on the inside. I would say that this one was more like a "hand tossed" crust- not too thin, but also not as thick as a "pan" crust. Both the texture and flavor were very good. We topped this one with this pizza sauce as well as some sauteed onions, peppers and mushrooms- and of course mozzarella cheese! Yummmmm... As you can see, this one was also baked on a (preheated) pizza stone.

Ingredients
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast (one package)
1/2 tsp brown sugar
1 1/2 cups warm water (110 degrees)
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp olive oil
3 1/3 cups all purpose flour

Directions
1. In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast and brown sugar in the warm water, and let sit for 10 minutes.
2. Stir the salt and oil into the yeast solution. Mix in 2 1/2 cups of the flour.
3. Turn dough out onto a clean, well floured surface, and knead in more flour until the dough is no longer sticky. Place the dough into a well oiled bowl, and cover with a cloth.

Let the dough rise until double; about 1 hour.

Punch down the dough, and form a tight ball. Allow the dough to relax for a minute before rolling out. Use you favorite sauce and toppings.

4. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. (If you are using a pizza stone, put it in the oven while it is preheating). If you are baking the dough on a pizza stone, you may place your toppings on the dough and bake immediately. If you are baking your pizza in a pan, lightly oil the pan and let the dough rise for 15-20 minutes before topping and baking.

5. Bake pizza in preheated oven, until the cheese and crust are golden brown, about 15-20 minutes.

After punching down the dough, I divided it into 2 balls. I topped one and baked on a pizza stone as pictured above and the other was made into garlic cheese bread. I rolled this dough and placed on a greased cookie sheet and let it rise for 20 minutes. I spread garlic butter on the dough and topped with grated cheese. It baked in the oven for about 20 minutes and was veryyyyy yummy!

Enjoy!!