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Fridays or the weekends are the best time to have a pizza night. So why not instead of ordering a pizza, you have a homemade pizza night instead. Making the pizza yourself may take a little bit longer because the dough needs to rise once before baking. But homemade pizza tastes so much better, and you get more control over how much cheese you want and the types of toppings that go on it. This homemade pizza will make your pizza night so much better.
For the pizza dough, it is made using a yeast dough. To activate the yeast, you need to mix the yeast and sugar into warm water. Let it sit until it is foamy. Mix the yeast mixture into a mixture of flour and salt along with olive oil. Mix until a dough forms. Dump the dough out onto a floured surface and knead it until smooth, adding in more flour as needed. Place the dough into a large greased bowl, cover with a towel or plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for 1-2 hours or until it is doubled in size.
This homemade pizza sauce is the easiest pizza sauce that you will ever make. There is no need to cook it, just mix a can of crushed tomatoes with seasonings. One batch of the pizza sauce makes enough for 2 pizzas. It is seasoned with salt, dried oregano, basil, thyme and crushed red pepper. I like the sauce to be a little bit spicy, so added the crushed red pepper, but if you would like a more milder pizza sauce than you can leave it out.
Deflate the pizza dough and divide it into two balls. Grease 2 13-inch pizza pans and an optional step is to dust the pizza pans with cornmeal. The cornmeal makes the crust more crispy. You can add any pizza toppings that you like on the pizza. I chose to use both shredded mozzarella cheese and grated parmesan cheese. I also topped it with pepperoni slices and sprinkled them with Italian seasoning. But this pizza can be however you want, even vegan. Just make it without cheese and top it with your favorite veggie toppings. Bake until the pizza crust is crispy and the cheese has melted.
Homemade Pizza
Ingredients
Ingredients for Pizza Dough
- 1 1/2 cups warm water
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
- 4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
Ingredients for Pizza Sauce
- 1 ( 28 oz.) can crushed tomatoes
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
Ingredients for Pizza
- 4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
- 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese, divided
- small pepperoni slices
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning, divided
Instructions
- For the pizza dough, in a large measuring cup, whisk mix sugar and yeast into the warm water. Let sit for 10 minutes.
- In a large bowl, combine flour and salt. Add in yeast mixture and olive oil and mix until a dough forms. Knead dough on a floured surface until smooth. Place dough into a large greased bowl. Cover and let rise in a warm place for 1-2 hours, or until doubled in size.
- For the pizza sauce mix the crushed tomatoes with the seasonings. Preheat oven to 425 F. Grease two 13-inch pizza pans with non stick cooking spray and dust with cornmeal. Deflate the pizza dough and divide it in half.
- Press each pizza dough into the pizza pans. Spread each pizza with 3/4 cup each of the pizza sauce. Top each with shredded mozzarella cheese and grated parmesan cheese. Top each pizza with 1/2 teaspoon each of Italian seasoning. Bake for 13-15 minutes.