Best Homemade Pizza Ever

My family loves pizza, as do most families, and with the economic crunch maybe you're looking for ways to still enjoy your favorites but pinch a few pennies at the same time.

Have you decided maybe you can't afford to grab a pizza every week or every month like you're used to? No reason to stop enjoying what you love when you can make it yourself!

Now, I've tried lots of homemade pizza recipes and what I usually found was that although the crust was tasty, it was oftentimes too thick and bread-y. And we always had the problem with keeping our supreme pizzas from being soggy from all the water off the vegetables. Well, we've solved that problem and have been enjoying homemade pizza using this recipe for the past three years!

The secret to success for us was to roll our crust out thin. It raises, but we still like it on the thin side because it doesn't go soggy and pizza is wonderful for leftovers. The other secret is the high heat * You must bake at a high heat to have success. I recommend baking at 500 degrees or higher if you're using lots of fresh vegetables. This cooks it up perfect and the moisture from the vegetables doesn't make your pizza soggy.

I'm so nice I'm going to share my recipe with you. This is a combination of several different recipes we tried, then my husband and I did a little tweaking and perfecting to get it just right. So here goes....follow the recipe and have fun! I make 2 pizzas and breadsticks with sauce for around $5.00--could be less depending on what toppings you choose to use.

Best Homemade Pizza Ever!!

Sauce:

1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce

1 teaspoon dry oregano

1/2 teaspoon marjoram

1/2 teaspoon dry basil

1/2 teaspoon garlic salt

Combine and let sit for 1 hour. I like to double the sauce recipe so that I can have extra sauce for dipping breadsticks later!

Dough: Increase a little bit to have enough for breadsticks and 2 large pizzas or make 1 1/2 times the recipe

1 1/3 cups warm water (105 degrees F)

1/4 cup non-fat dry milk

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 cups flour

1 tablespoon granulated sugar

1 package dry yeast

2 tablespoons vegetable oil (for dough)

9 ounces vegetable oil (3 ounces per pan)

Butter-flavored Pam

Put yeast, sugar, salt, and dry milk in a large bowl. Add water and stir to mix well. Allow to sit for two minutes.

Add oil and stir again. Add flour and stir until dough forms and flour is absorbed. Turn out on to a flat surface and knead for about 10 minutes. Divide dough into three balls.

 Put 3 ounces of oil in each of three 9-inch cake pans, making sure it is spread evenly. *But I use my Pampered Chef stones. I use a large bar pan and a 15 inch circle stone to cook two pizzas, then I use my 12X15 rectangle stone to make the breadsticks. Using a rolling pin, roll out each dough ball to about a 9-inch circle. Place in cake pans. Spray the outer edge of dough with Pam. Cover with a plate. Place in warm area and allow to rise for 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

For each 9-inch pizza

Heat oven to 475 degrees F. Cook at 500 degrees if using lots of vegetables

Spoon 1/3 cup sauce on dough and spread to within 1 inch of edge.

Distribute 1 1/2 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese on sauce.

Place toppings of your choice in this order: Pepperoni or ham, vegetables, meats (cooked ground sausage or beef)

Top with 3 ounces mozzarella cheese.

Cook until cheese is bubbling and outer crust is brown. Cut into slices.