Homemade Pizza & Dough

Makes: 1 - 15" Pizza Crusts
*This recipe can be doubled in most bread makers to make 2 pizza crusts.

Pizza Dough *See notes for high altitude changes
3/4 c. (6 oz.) warm water, 80-90 degrees
2 T. vegetable oil
2 c. flour
1/2 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. active dry yeast OR 1 1/2 tsp. bread machine/fast rise yeast

Cornmeal (to sprinkle on pizza pan)

Pizza
1/3-1/2 c. pizza or pasta sauce
2 c. (8 oz.) shredded Mozzarella cheese
Your choice of pizza toppings (pepperoni, sausage, black olives, onions, peppers, etc.)

Select the "Dough" setting for your bread maker. Add the warm water and oil to the bread pan. Add flour, sugar and salt to pan. Tap pan to settle dry ingredients, then level ingredients, pushing some of the mixture into the corners. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients; add yeast. With bread pan locked into bread maker, begin dough cycle. When dough cycle is completed, remove dough from bread pan and place onto floured surface. Knead about 1 minute.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly brush pizza pan with oil and sprinkle with cornmeal. Roll out dough onto pizza pan and set aside to rise for 10 minutes. Par-bake the crust for 7 minutes and remove from oven. Spread crust with pizza sauce, more or less depending on personal preference. Top with cheese and pizza toppings. Bake for an additional 12 minutes or until edges of crust are golden brown. Remove from oven and let stand for 5 minutes. Cut with pizza cutter & enjoy homemade pizza for a fraction of the price of the pizza parlor!

Notes: Homemade pizza is one of my family's go-to recipes almost weekly. We make it a family movie night and let the kids sit on the floor in the living room to eat. Most weeks we can find a movie that we all agree on (most weeks, but some times it's fight!). Plus we don't usually have soda in the house so this is our one night to indulge.

One reason I love this meal so much is because it's a family favorite (no complaints!), it's sooo much cheaper to make your own dough that to buy a fresh pizza from the pizza parlor, we can easily customize the pizza to each person's preferences, plus I there's no dough conditioners or preservatives in my crust!

Here are a couple ideas to keep your pizza on the healthier side (since pizza always gets such a bad rap): first, use turkey pepperoni or sausage to cut down on fat. Second, grate your own cheese. It melts better and doesn't have the additive that pre-grated cheese does to keep it from sticking together. Third, we like to use Ragu Simply Traditional style sauce for our pizza. It has no sugar added and very simple ingredients plus it's very smooth which is what my family prefers. Fourth, try a new veggie on your pizza once and awhile. You might be surprised what the kids will try!

I always bake my pizzas on a Pampered Chef pizza stone and we love the results. If you don't have a pizza stone or even a round pizza pan, you can still use this amount of dough on a regular size cookie sheet.

High Altitude Modifications (we live at 6800 ft. and these work great for us)

We always make 2 pizza doughs so these are the measurements I go by:
12 oz. warm water
4 T. oil
4 c. flour
3/4 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
2 1/4 tsp. fast rise yeast

Let me know in the comments how your pizza turned out! Tag me on Instagram at @recipes.for.moms with a picture of your pizza.

Recipe from my WestBend bread maker instruction manual.