Homemade Pizza 1 of 2

Why is this a two part blog? you may ask.
Because there is more than one way to make a pizza.

This is the quick method and the least amount of trouble without buying a frozen pizza.
(Have you tried those pizza ordering apps?!)

I start here, with a frozen ball of pizza dough. Tisseo's is my favorite kind, I get this at Kroger in the frozen "ethnic" section, if there is one. They don't put it by the bread. They put it by the frozen pierogies and raviolis.

The ball of frozen dough was taken out of the freezer, then out of the bag, around 430pm when I finally decided what I wanted to eat for dinner. Depending on the events of the day and who is coming home, the less people involved, it seems, the less scratch I go. If it's just me I've been known to eat cheesy rice since it takes literally no prep work and I can go play on facebook until the rice is done.  We'll blog that one another time; when my family is away. 

Here is the frozen dough. I sprayed it with olive oil spray all over and flipped it around in the bowl a little bit. 

Now I'm not an actual chef but I know a frozen ball of dough will NOT thaw by 6pm dinner unless I help it along. Brace yourselves, it's not exactly pretty at first. 

I put the dough in my microwave (hey they did it on The Great British Bake-off, I can too!) and stopped it when my pizza appeared to grow a potato. Or maybe it's a brain. I'm pretty sure it's not supposed to look like that. But I'm hungry so we will carry on.

I flipped it over so it was less scary looking and let it sit around for an hour. 

When I could not feasibly wait any longer, I turned on the oven to 450F and got my pan ready. This is my not fancy pizza stone, that's down like two whole steps to the store room sitting on a rack somewhere. This is just a cookie sheet.

I used this olive oil. I don't have a favorite, my pallet is not very sophisticated. Ask my Aunt Irene, she tells me I drink "koolaid" for wine ;)

I basically rubbed it around the pan and the now soft dough and started stretching. 

You kind of pull it apart slowly until it looks like it might break, then set it down on the pan. Oil it, spread the oil around, then smoosh it until it fits the pan. Like so: 

It's not perfect, nor do you want it to be. It will get some really cool bubbles in a sec.

Oven's ready!
Salt the dough and pop it in the oven for 8 minutes. This makes the crust puffy and ready for toppings.

Look at that, huh?! Drool worthy. And the smell, Oh My God. 

Next is the toppings. 

First sauce: 

Now I'm not using fancy ingredients here. Proof: 

2 of the three of us here today like pepperoni. One of us is not much of a fan. One of us doesnt like melted cheese.
No problem.

I put the meat and cheese on the sauce. Then I go for the veggies.

Time for the last bake. Now go easy, it's almost done. So I go for about 5 mins with the oven on and turn it off for the last minute if needed. 

Looking good but now I need some crust action! I like a good buttery garlicky crust. 

Easy method is the name of the game today, so I just took a half stick of butter, peeled away some of the paper, and rubbed it on the crust. Then I sprinkled garlic salt around the edge. 

See how shiny? Yum. NO baking needed here, just let the hot pizza melt the butter.

Last thing is to cut it. I don't use pizza wheels. I never could get the hang of them. 

So I use very long scissors and it does the job really well. 

And that's it.
The crust is crispy on the bottom, yet soft and chewy once you bite in.
You can top it any way you want.
And pizza was done by 630pm. Not bad eh?

Enjoy!
Vicky aka The Clumsy Chef

P.S., does anyone user Blogger and know how to set the time settings? It's off by 3 hours.
Thanks!