Pizza Crust

I asked Rachel what she wanted for dinner last night and she asked for pizza. I thought I'd share my version of crust. Michelle's post got me in the mood : ). I always make my own crust, and frankly I never really measure it anymore. Last night I paid attention to what I was dumping in, so here you go. After many experiments, we find that we're happiest with half whole wheat flour and half white flour.

1 cup warm water
1 t. active dry yeast
1 1/2 T. olive oil
2 T. honey
1 t. salt
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour (I prefer hard white winter wheat)
1 1/2-2 cups white flour

Pour the warm water into a medium size bowl and sprinkle the yeast on top. Dump in the olive oil, honey and salt, then stir in the whole wheat flour. Add the white flour a little at a time until it is too stiff to stir, then knead for about 5 minutes, adding additional flour as necessary, until the dough becomes smooth and elastic. Drizzle a little additional olive oil into the bowl and turn the dough to coat evenly on all sides. Cover the bowl with a towel and let rest for an hour, or until doubled.

Preheat the oven to 425. Turn the dough out onto a pizza stone (Pampered Chef brand ones are far superior to any others that I've tried) and press the dough with the heel of your hands to cover the stone. Prick all over with a fork and bake for 8 minutes. Layer your favorite toppings on top and return to the oven for an additional 8-12 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly and delicious and to your liking.

My kids aren't very adventurous. Actually neither is Alan. Their favorite pizza is pepperoni and shredded bacon. I can think of all sorts of marvelous things to top my pizza with - roasted peppers/chicken/purple onions/bacon/BBQ sauce, feta cheese/zucchini/red peppers/yellow squash/pesto, roasted tomatoes/fresh mozarella/fresh basil....mmmm. Use your imagination. You can rarely go wrong with pizza!