Pizza Making

A few nights ago, my son decided to make pizza. I had planned homemade pizza for dinner, but he just insisted that he make it.

Note: when Bryce says he wants to cook something, he wants to do it "all by himself." The "all by himself" is defined by Mom can't touch anything, but she has to stand over everything he does and give a description of what needs to be done.

Have you ever tried to do that while someone (who is a novice in the kitchen) is trying to make pizza? It's almost impossible.

I kept wanting to pick the dough up and show him how to stretch it. I wanted to show him how you nicely spread that sauce around in a perfectly round circle with a uniform crust developing. (Note the sloppy edge.....I used to work in a pizza shop in my younger days, I guess it stuck with me all these years.)

Here's the dough recipe that I use from my Betty Crocker recipe book (the one I mentioned in this post):
Pizza Dough

1 package active dry yeast (we use 1 1/2 tablespoons)
1 cup warm water (105 to 115 degrees ) - We just run the water and wait 'til it's warm
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups all purpose or whole wheat flour

Dissolve yeast in warm water. Stir in remaining ingredients; beat vigorously 20 strokes. Let stand about 5 minutes.

Notice how it says to let stand about 5 minutes......

Well, our pizza dough sat for about 15 minutes as we were making the sauce while we were letting it stand. You know, it's difficult to make sauce in 5 minutes when you're instructing a 19 year old, then answering all his questions as you proceed.

Note: we doubled the dough recipe and we use a 14-inch pizza stone. We like the poufy, thicker dough.

Here's the sauce recipe that I use (It's one that I have developed through the years):
Pizza Sauce

2/3 can (12 ounces) of tomato paste (I freeze the remainder for next time)
1 teaspoon of minced garlic (Bryce added 1 tablespoon, he loves garlic!)
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon sugar, scant
1/8 cup Parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon basil
1/2 teaspoon oregano
water

You mix all the ingredients together until smooth.

Question: How much water? Ummmm, I eyeball it until it looks and acts like pizza sauce, of course. (I was driving the boy crazy with explanations like that one.)

The masterpiece pizza consisted of pepperoni and onions. We topped it with a good shake of Parmesan cheese and oregano.

When we were getting ready to put it into the oven, Bryce asked if it was supposed to look so bubbly! No, it's not, but it had actually risen a great deal while he was topping it. It took 1 hour to get it into the oven.

I told him you know you're an expert pizza maker when you can make dough, sauce, top the pizza and have it baked and on the table in 45 minutes. It took him longer than that just to top it.

I think I might let my pizza dough rise next time after stretching it onto my stone, because it was so light and fluffly. It had a sweet crunch to it.

It was very good!

Don't tell Bryce, but it was a darn sight better than my first pizza!