Easy Pizza Crust

Oh, pizza. I think it's safe to save that pizza is one of my favorite foods. I could eat it every day... and sometimes that just may be the case. I'll take frozen, delivery, take out, cheap or expensive. It's all delish to me. So why not venture into the world of making my own pizza crust? That is the most tasty part of a pizza if I do say so myself.

I've been researching the easiest pizza crust recipe alive. One that doesn't involve fancy equipment or long hours to create and rise.

I stumbled upon this recipe from one of my favorite money saving websites ironically named moneysavingmom.com. She is a super mom and I aspire to be like her. I don't know how she does it all.  I tweaked the recipe a tiny bit to make it my own. You can find the original recipe here.

Not to brag or anything, but this was my first pizza crust recipe and well, it turned out perfect to me. It was so simple. The ingredients are all things I had on hand and the best part is that you don't have to let the yeast rise. I couldn't have asked for something easier.

You ready? Let's go.

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon dry yeast (this will be more than one packet of yeast)
1 cup warm water (needs to be warm enough to feed to a baby, about 105° to 115° F)
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
2 1/2 cups bread flour plus extra for flouring a surface
cornmeal

Directions:
1. Preaheat oven to 450° F.
2. Dissolve the yeast into the warm water (about 5-10 minutes). Add the rest of the ingredients into the bowl and mix for about a minute.
3. Pour mixture onto clean, floured surface. Make sure your hands are covered with flour so that the dough doesn't stick to you.
4. Knead by hand into a smooth ball for about 5-10 minutes. Don't know how to knead? I didn't either until this handy youtube video. It should look something like this:

If you press your finger into the ball, the dough should have enough elasticity to bounce back after you puncture it. Continue to add extra flour into the dough to take most of the moisture out.
5. Sprinkle some cornmeal onto a greased baking sheet or pizza stone (this gives it some texture). I've also read that turning a pan upside down and putting the pizza on top it will act just like a pizza stone but I haven't tried it out yet.
6. Add toppings and bake for 12-15 minutes.
7. Sit back, enjoy, and be very, very impressed.

The toppings we used were 1/2 cup tomato sauce, 3/4 to 1 cup of mozzarella, 1/4 cup parmesan cheese, about 25 pepperonis, one sausage link browned, home grown basil, garlic, garlic salt, crushed red pepper, and Italian seasoning. Oh, man. It was so good. I'm dreaming about it right now.

You can put it in a freezer bag right after you knead the dough into a ball and stick it in your freezer. Just put it in the fridge for about 6 hours before you want to use it.

I have one in the freezer right now just waiting to be devoured but I just got my wisdom teeth out yesterday (yep, all 4) and am eating only soft, baby foods right now.

Getting sick = fantastic reason to blog.

I hope everyone is having a great weekend. Let me know if anyone has any favorite pizza combinations that they want to share other than the usual pepperoni & cheese.