Homemade pizza with friends.

I know I am terribly late with this one. But here it is in all its glory. Freshly posted from Yuma, AZ! (BTW it was 118 here yesterday) It's too dang hot.

If there is one thing I have learned over the past 17 and a half years in the military is that you have to make friends quickly, because you never know when you, or them, are going to have to leave abruptly. We have had the pleasure of making many friends over those years. Last Saturday night we invited over just such a set of friends. The time has come for them to move on to better things. After only knowing them for such a short period of time they have become close friends to both my wife and I. The military decided it was in it's best interest for me to leave for a couple of weeks for some training, and while I am gone they will be moving on to their new home.

So we had them over for a family style dinner at the house for me to see them off before I left. Isn't that what dinner is for anyways? Getting together with family and friends, to break bread with those that are closest to you? Dinner is not supposed to be done in a car, or on the fly, or picked up and brought home only to have everyone grab their "bag" and run off to watch TV and eat alone. I think this is a part of a greater problem in America today. Every once in a while as a treat is one thing, but too many of us are doing it on a more frequent basis. Ease and convenience has taken the place of quality and meaningful. More people need to bring dinner back to the dinner table. Sad, but enough of my ranting.

The meal consisted of homemade pizza and homemade watermelon sorbet. The pizza was a hit, but the sorbet was, well lets just say that I didn't make very much and there was some left over at the end of the night. The texture of the sorbet was perfect but the watermelon i used wasn't very sweet. I think next time I'm going to make strawberry sorbet. Or try to find a sweeter watermelon. Although I guess you don't really know until you open it.

It was a bittersweet evening. I am happy to see them move on to bigger and better things but sad to see them leave. They are wonderful friends and I hope they find everything they are looking for up in the great white north. We are going to miss you #22. Oh, and I suppose the rest of the Easons as well. God speed my friends.

The good thing about homemade pizza is everybody gets exactly what they want on the pizza. We included toppings like hamburger, onions, green peppers, olives, pineapple, pepperoni, extra cheese. Anything will do. Here is the homemade dough recipe we used. I used a triple batch and was a little short for the amount of pizzas we made so I would say at least 1.5 batches per family eating. Throw one some of your favorite sauce and then let your imagination run wild.

Ingredients for dough

1 1/2 cups warm water (105°F-115°F)
1 package (2 1/4 teaspoons) of active dry yeast (check the expiration date on the package)
3 1/2 cups bread flour (can use all-purpose but bread flour will give you a crisper crust)
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon sugar

Method

1 In the large bowl of a heavy duty electric mixer (such as a Kitchen Aid), add the warm water. Sprinkle on the yeast and let sit for 5 minutes until the yeast is dissolved. Stir to dissolve completely if needed at the end of 5 minutes.

2 Mix in the olive oil, flour, salt and sugar on low speed for about a minute. You can use a dough hook for the mixing. Knead using the mixer and dough hook, on low to medium speed, until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. If you don't have a mixer, you can mix and knead by hand. If the dough seems a little too wet, sprinkle on a bit more flour.

3 Place ball of dough in a bowl that has been coated lightly with olive oil. Turn the dough around in the bowl so that it gets coated with the oil. Cover with plastic wrap. Let sit in a warm place (75-85°F) until it doubles in size, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours (or several hours longer, a longer rise will improve the flavor). If you don't have a warm spot in the house you can pre- an oven for about 2 min and then place the bowl in there. Dont forget to turn off the oven after preheating for a few minutes or risk melting your bowl or baking the dough early. (Don't ask how I know this.)

Here is my dough risen, doubled in size and ready to be pucnched down and rolled out.

Preparing the Pizzas

1 Place a pizza stone(or baking sheet if you dont have a stone) on a rack in the lower third of your oven. Preheat the oven to 450°F for at least 30 minutes, preferably an hour.

2 Remove the plastic cover from the dough and punch the dough down so it deflates a bit. Divide the dough in half. Form two round balls of dough. Place each in its own bowl, cover with plastic and let sit for 10 minutes.

3 Have your prepared toppings ready to add to your pizza. Remember, many toppings will make for a soggy crust in the middle so don't over do them.

4 Working one ball of dough at a time, take one ball of dough and flatten it with your hands on a slightly floured work surface. Starting at the center and working outwards, use your fingertips to press the dough to 1/2-inch thick. Turn and stretch the dough until it will not stretch further. Let the dough relax 5 minutes and then continue to stretch it until it reaches the desired diameter - We made mostly individual pizzas about 6 inches across but you can make these almost any size. About 12-14 would be the largest.

5 Brush the top of the dough with olive oil (to help prevent it from getting soggy from the toppings).

Repeat for as many pizzas as you are making.

6 Lightly sprinkle whatever you are using to transfer your pizza to the stove with corn meal, otherwise its going to make it difficult to transfer. If the dough has loses its shape in the transfer, lightly shape it to the desired dimensions.

7 Now the fun part. Build the pizza. Sauce, cheese, toppings. Toppings, sauce, cheese. However you want it!

8 Sprinkle some cornmeal on the baking stone in the oven (watch your hands, the oven is hot!). Gently try to see if the dough will easily slide, if not, gently lift up the edges of the pizza and add a bit more cornmeal. Slide the pizza off of the peel and on to the baking stone in the oven. Bake pizza one at a time until the crust is browned and the cheese is golden, about 10-15 minutes. If you want, toward the end of the cooking time you can sprinkle on a little more cheese.

Here is some of the making process (my wife had the great idea to make stuffed crust pizzas) All she did was roll some cheese in the edge of the dough during the shaping process. Creativity is part of the fun!

The building process and enjoying some of the finish products.

The possibilities are endless. Forget all those chain restaurants. Why call for delivery when you can do it yourself. Call your friends, call your family, get everyone together and have a build your own pizza night! It's worth all the extra time and trouble. Not only have you produced for your family and friends but you know exactly what has gone into all the ingredients. I would love to hear about you experience. Fill me in on your homemade pizza night via comments or email. Stay tuned. I will post the sorbet instructions in my next post. See y'all then.