Pandemic Pizza!

Somehow, I've gotten busy or lazy and have neglected to share recipes on this blog. I will TRY to remember to do that more often... although most of you follow me on Facebook and I post recipes there. That's not much of an excuse, but it is what it is.  Now that we are all house bound during this pandemic, many are cooking again. Finding ingredients is a bit of a challenge, so I will stick with easy recipes with a minimum of ingredients.

One of our favorites is homemade pizza. And, although I have posted it here before, here it is again for those who haven't tried it! I promise, it is easy peasy!!!!

Homemade Pizza Crust
1 envelope active dry yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
1 cup warm water (110 degrees)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
Dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water (I use tap water, as hot as it runs). Cover with a dish towel and let stand in a warm place until creamy, about 10 minutes.
Stir in oil, flour and salt. Beat with mixer (I use dough hook) until smooth. You can do this by hand, if you have lots of strength!
Cover with dish towel; let stand in a warm place to rest for 10 minutes.
Turn dough onto floured surface and roll into a circle (or whatever shape you like!)
This makes 1 large or 2 medium pizzas. Cut the dough in half and roll each separately to make personal pizzas.
Transfer to a lightly greased pizza pan (or baking sheet). Spread with toppings and bake for 15-20 minutes, depending on thickness of crust.

Helen's Notes: Typical Italian pizza has a very mild tomato sauce. I use plain canned tomato sauce with a teaspoon of sugar added. The " Grand boys" Pizza made "Meat Lover's" with all meat toppings. The key to great pizza, they found, was lots of cheese!

I  bake mine on a pizza stone, heated in the oven while I make the dough. I roll the dough onto parchment paper on a cookie sheet, add toppings, then slide the parchment paper onto the pizza stone. When it's done, I slide the cookie sheet under the parchment paper and remove it from the oven. Then slide the pizza off of the parchment paper to cut it. If you have a fancy pizza peel, you're in business! This is my "do with what you've got"  method! LOL!