Hayes Family Pizza Night!

Pizza night is a weekly thing around here and has been for the last 4 years or so. We're always looking for new ways to make the crust and new toppings. We usually have a simple green chile and turkey pepperoni pizza and them something else like a Philly Cheese Steak pizza or maybe BBQ Chicken (my husband's favorite!). For now I will share our crust recipe and then later add now we make the toppings for our specialty pies.

The recipe below can be split in half for two smaller pies or used for one larger pie. You can use half wheat and half white if you'd like. I often add ground flax or wheat germ for an added nutritional boost. You can also substitute garlic salt for regular salt and add in whichever herbs you like.

Pizza Crust

Ingredients:

1 packet yeast or 2 1/4 teaspoons

1 cup warm water

Sprinkle of sugar

1 tsp salt

2 tbsp oil

2 1/2 cups flour

Directions:

Add yeast to the warm water and sprinkle with sugar. Allow the yeast to activate for a few minutes.

Mix together 1 cup of flour with the salt. Once the yeast has activated, add to the flour and mix. Add the rest of the flour little by little until you have a nice dough. It may not take all of the flour!!

Roll out the dough and place on a greased pizza sheet. (At this point you can roll the edges out a bit thinner and then add cheese to the outside of the crust. Roll the crust over and seal with water. Now you have a cheesy crust! Yum! I will then add some butter, garlic salt and Parmesan cheese to the crust just before baking.) Prick wholes with a fork in the dough. Allow the dough to rise for 15-30 minutes.

Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes. Add your toppings and then cook for another 15 minutes or until your cheese is melted.

Enjoy!