Homemade Pizza

I had a craving for some good homemade pizza the other day, especially since my new Pampered Chef flat stone had just been delivered & I really wanted to try it out. So, I used a quick & easy pizza dough recipe & made my own pizza sauce & covered it with wonderful toppings. Here are the recipes I used:

Pizza Dough

1 package active dry yeast

1 tsp white sugar

1 cup warm water

2 1/2 cups flour

2 Tbsp olive oil

1 tsp salt

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees (I might have lowered it to 425). In a medium bowl, dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.

2. Stir in flour, salt & oil. Beat until smooth. Let rest 5 minutes.

3. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface & pat or roll into a round (I just brought it over to my baking stone that I'd sprinkled corn meal on & rolled it & stretched it until it fit to the edges). Spread with desired toppings & bake in preheated oven for 15-20 minutes, or until golden brown. Let cool for 5 minutes before serving.

Pizza Sauce (if your pizza is larger like mine, go ahead & double the recipe)

1 can tomato paste

water

1/3 cup olive oil

2 cloves garlic (or 1 Tbsp garlic powder)

salt & pepper

1/2 Tbsp oregano

1/2 Tbsp basil

(the recipe calls for 1/2 Tbsp rosemary but I didn't like the flavor of it when we ate the pizza, so I would leave it out)

Mix all the ingredients except the water. Then, add a bit of water at a time, stirring until mixed in, until the sauce is smooth & spreadable but not too runny (basically however you like it).

Spread on your pizza dough, add cheese, & whatever toppings you want. I did sausage, olives, mushrooms, & chopped tomato. I would have put pepperoni on also but it was pretty full with everything else. I'll just have to make another pizza this week.

P.S. You can still enter my photo shoot giveaway over at Becky's Blog, so if you live in or near Kingman, feel free to enter!