Homemade Pizza {6 of 10}

This one is a HUGE favourite in our house -- Homemade Pizza! Both the pizza dough and the pizza sauce are homemade. Nothing beats homemade!!

We try to make pizza dough from scratch whenever possible. Sometimes there just is not enough time though. So to make it quicker whenever I make the dough, I make enough that I can freeze half of it for another time. Do not get me wrong,  we prefer fresh as it is best, but the frozen dough is almost just as good. Plus it is a lot less than ordering in pizza or buying the dough at the grocery store. Heck the odd time when I use to grab the dough from the grocery store (when life was a we bit hectic --- I was pregnant and Byron broke his leg, thus, I had to do everything around the house after getting home from work and my energy levels were almost nil), they only sold the pizza dough frozen and charged over $3.00 for it. At that price I will make it myself and freeze it. I found this recipe for Freezer-Friendly Pizza Dough from Money Saving Mom's site. It works out great as long as you remember to take the dough out in the morning for it to thaw.

 

 

The dough grew quite a bit ...

 

 

 

This past fall I decided to make my own pizza sauce from scratch. I ended up with quite a few jars and I used some of them as Christmas gifts. Here's the finished product before getting poured into the jars.

 

 

 

We find using a Pizza Stone is a must when making homemade pizza! It makes such a huge difference. Ours was a wedding gift from one of my co-workers at the time -  it's from The Pampered Chef. We have had it now for almost 5 years and we love it!!

 

Here's the finished pizza before going into the oven. We were too busy stuffing our faces once it came out that I didn't get a photo of the finished product.

 

 

Recipe from Money Saving Mom

Freezer-Friendly Homemade Pizza Dough

 

2 cups warm water

2 Tablespoons active dry yeast

2 Teaspoons sugar

2 Teaspoons salt

4 Tablespoons olive oil

5 cups flour (might need a bit more for flouring working surface)
 

Pour the warm water into a bowl and add sugar. Stir until it dissolve. Sprinkle the yeast over it.

 

Wait about 10 minutes. Stir to dissolve. Add the remaining ingredients and mix.

 

Dump onto a floured surface and knead dough for two to five minutes until smooth and no longer sticky.

 

To freeze: Cut dough in half and place each half in an airtight freezer bag. Freeze for up to 4-6 weeks.

 

If you don’t freeze the dough, take the kneaded dough and roll out and shape onto a pizza stone. Add pizza toppings of your choice and bake at 350 degrees Celsius for about 30 minutes (until the crust looks crispy and lightly browned and the cheese has melted).

 

To bake if previously frozen: Place frozen dough in a greased bowl and that at room temperature for at least 3-4 hours. Roll out and shape onto a pizza stone. Follow above directions for baking.

 Pizza is something we all love at our house. Byron and I especially enjoy a homemade pizza with a nice glass of red wine!