Pizza “Party”

First, let me give a shout out to my friend, Becky, who gave me the recipe. My husband’s family once owned a pizzeria, and I intend to try their family’s dough recipe as soon as I can get my hands on it, but until then, this one worked and is not unlike others I’ve seen in cookbooks. One piece of my husband’s history did play a role in the whole process, though. We recently moved some cabinets around in the kitchen and topped one with part of the old butcher block that was used in their restaurant. When he got home from work that evening, he was so tickled to see the pictures of Liv rolling out dough on it.

Anyway, I mixed the dough up while Liv napped so it would be ready to work with when she got up. Since it only took minutes, I was able to put our newest addition in her bouncy seat in the kitchen while I made it. Then, when the dough had risen and Liv had wiped the sleep from her eyes, we got to work. I floured the surface and gave her a small portion to play with while I rolled out the crust. Then, I let her help me sprinkle cheese and place the pepperoni on top. She was thrilled. Here’s what I did wrong: the recipe is for TWO crusts, but I made only ONE pizza, which resulted in a very thick and unfortunately, very doughy pizza. Woops. It had good flavor, though, so I’m confident it would’ve been great if I’d remembered to split the dough in two. The best thing, though, is that we had a ball, and plan to make this a Friday evening tradition in our family.

Mix 1 1/2 cups warm water with 1 tsp. sugar and 1 package of yeast. Let sit for 10 minutes.

Add 3 1/2 cups flour, 1 tsp. salt and 1 T. olive oil to the yeast mixture. (You can use whole wheat flour, or a mixture of whole wheat and all-purpose.) Knead the mixture for 8 to 10 minutes.

Place in well-oiled bowl and cover with a clean kitchen towel. Let it double in size.

DIVIDE IN TWO.

Roll out dough and top with toppings.

Bake at 400 degrees on a greased sheet or a baking stone sprinkled with corn meal.