In Search of the Best Homemade Pizza

One of my latest crazes has been searching for the best homemade pizza. I decided that since most of my kids were picky eaters, and the whole family agrees on pizza, that I should try to learn how to make it myself. In the past I have made the Chef Boyardee pizzas and have bought pre-made pizza dough from Trader Joe's in addition to, of course, order out. I love Pizza Hut pan crust, but with our budget food days, it's not a good idea. The Chef Boyardee is good, and Trader Joe's is even butter, but I really wanted to learn how to do it myself.

My first attempt ended on a sour note. I was prepared enough to have my yeast, but forgot the pizza sauce and used spaghetti sauce instead. I also only had regular flour, and pre-shredded, bagged mozzarella cheese. Never use spaghetti sauce instead of pizza sauce! It did NOT have enough flavor. The cheese was dry and bland and ditto for the dough. The kids ate it, but not enthusiastically. It was too chewy.

My second attempt was much better! I used bread flour and block mozzarella cheese which I shredded myself. I also was prepared enough to have real pizza sauce. The dough even tasted better! My kids ate it with gusto. I was still slightly unsatisfied...and a little confused on the whole dough process. How long do I kneed it? How much flour is enough when it says to "add at your own discretion? How long do I let it rise if it is rapid rise yeast? And how do I get the dough to be crispier? I decided to borrow a bread machine. Remember those? The biggest kitchen craze in the 90's? I knew I could count on someone having theirs stored in the basement, gathering dust. Admit it. You have one doing just that. So I called my dad. It was in the basement, in the box. After the Atkins craze when they all but gave up bread, it got stored in the basement. He happily brought it up, bragging about what a good machine it was and how he did research to buy the best one (sounds a lot like me). He told me the name brand, "Zojirushi" and sure enough, I did a search on the internet and found my dad had bought the best one out there. He was glad to lend it to me and see it get some use.

I used a simple dough recipe. I wanted to start with something basic. 3 3/4 cups of bread flour, 1 1/2 tbsp sugar, 1 1/2 tsp salt, 2 tsp of rapid rise yeast, 1 1/2 cups of water, 1 1/2 tbsp olive oil. Throw it all into the bread pan and the machine does the rest of the thinking for you. It even warms it up before mixing and kneading. So cool! Rolling it out is a little tougher. You roll it...and it comes back in. You realize why the pizzarias throw their dough in the air and let gravity stretch it out. I tried getting my hands under the dough and it stretched much easier (I'll let you know when I get good enough to throw it in the air :-)

I cooked the dough first for 10 minutes at 400 and then put my toppings on. On the first pizza, I did your traditional pizza sauce, pepperoni and mozzarella. The second, I decided to get a little more creative with a garlic, butter, olive oil mixture, Italian Seasoning and mozzarella. I put them back in the oven for about 15 more minutes. When they came out... we tested them like food critics. It was yummy! They both were! I think I'm finally satisfied. I'm sure I'll be tweaking it here and there, but I think I've even satisfied the most hard to please critics in my house, my kids. Their verdict was easy to read....the two pizzas were eaten up! No left overs! I wish I could show pictures of the pizzas, but I forgot to take some. Next time I will.