Easy Home Made Pizza Recipe

We love pizza in our household. I can honestly say that we have pizza at least once a week. Sometimes we get pizza from one of our favorite pizzerias; other times we have store bought pizza. I also love to make homemade pizza, but making the dough is always time consuming. I used to make my own pizza dough from scratch using regular yeast from a packet. With the recipe I used to use, I had to wait for the dough to rise and of course that would take time.

I recently found a great way to save time on making pizza dough from scratch and it tastes amazing. This happened quite by chance. I asked my husband to pick up yeast for me. He called from the market and told me that there was a specific yeast for pizza which I had not seen before. I asked him to read me the ingredients and directions and they sounded great to me. My husband brought the Fleischmann's Pizza Yeast packets home and I used them to make the pizza dough. The process was so much easier than the usual way I made pizza dough, I thought I would share it.

Here is the simple recipe for pizza dough from scratch thanks to the recipe listed on the package of Fleischmann's Pizza Yeast:

My sauce recipe follows below.

For the Dough: (this is for 1 - 12-inch round pizza crust)

1 3/4 to 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1 envelope Fleischmann's Pizza Yeast

1 1/2 teaspoons sugar

3/4 teaspoon salt

2/3 cup very warm tap water (120-130 degrees Fahrenheit)

3 tablespoons oil

Note: I made 2 - 11 x 17 inch pies so I used the above recipe and multiplied all the ingredients by 3.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit

Combine 1 cup flour, yeast, sugar and salt in a large bowl. Add water and oil. Mix together until well blended, about 1 minute

Add gradually, 1/2 cup flour until soft dough ball is formed;dough will be slightly sticky. Add additional flour if needed to form dough ball.

Knead on a floured surface adding additional flour if needed, until smooth and elastic, about 4 minutes.

For the Sauce:

2 - 15 ounce cans tomato sauce

1 tablespoon olive oil

3 ounces water

salt and pepper to taste

garlic powder to taste

about 2 teaspoons parsley (fresh or dried)

2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese

In a medium pot:

• Put oil and water into pot.
• Add salt, pepper, garlic powder and parsley
• Stir until slightly browned
• Add tomato sauce and half a can of water
• Cook on medium heat until bubbly
• Continue to cook on low heat until the sauce thickens, about 20 minutes
• Add Parmesan Cheese when sauce is just about done and stir

To Finish the Pizza:

With floured hands, press dough out to fill greased pizza pan or roll dough to desired size and transfer to greased pan(s).

Poke a few holes into the dough with a fork.

Spread a thin layer of sauce onto the pizza dough.

Toppings:

shredded mozzarella or four cheese blend - 1 cup for a 12 inch pie, 2 cups each for the larger 11X17 inch pies that I made

sliced pepperoni, cooked sausage, peppers or whatever other toppings you like

Top as desired with toppings and cheese.

Bake on bottom oven rack for 12 to 15 minutes until cheese is bubbly and crust is golden brown.

Enjoy!!

I am very happy that I found the Fleischmann's Pizza Yeast in my local supermarket. This means that I will make homemade pizza more often. My husband and kids really enjoyed it and I must say so did I. The house smelled delicious as the sauce and then the pizza pies were cooking. I hope this encourages others to try making pizza from scratch too!