Here is what I love about making your own pizza:
*Ooeey, gooeey, cheesy deliciousness
*You can add ANY toppings you want, change it up, make it completly and totally your own.
*It's easy to make and you can add veggies and meats...it's a complete meal wrapped in cheesiness.
*Did I mention the cheese?
Here is what I don't love about making your own pizza:
*You heat the oven to 500 degrees...basically a blazing inferno in your kitchen and right now in Oklahoma it's been over 100 degrees for many, many, MANY days. That is not the type of weather I want to be heating up my house with a super hot oven in.
The solution:
Skillet Pizza
Why?
You heat up the broiler only and the pizza cooks in about 3-5 minutes. You don't have to heat up your entire kitchen and you can make several pizzas quickly.
So here is how I successfully created Skillet Pizza
Step 1: Entertain 9-month-old...usually a measuring spoon or cup works quite well.
Step 2: Create your crust. I use a recipe from the Pioneer Woman. But, you can also get premade dough from a pizzeria or you can buy a box mix. To make the Pioneer Woman's dough you place half a package of yeast into about 1 cup of warm water and let it sit. Then mix 4 cups of dough with 1 tbsp of kosher salt. Drizzle 1/3 cup of olive oil into the flour and salt mixture using a fork to mix. Then add the water and yeast mixture to the flour and use your hands to mix until smooth and very sticky.
Drizzle a bowl with olive oil and add the dough. It will look like this.
Cover with a damp towel for 1 to 2 hours and the dough grows to look like this.
Cut the dough in half. I use a very sharp knife and it works pretty well. This recipe will make two pizzas.
Ahhh much better.
And away she goes with the paper in her mouth. I think she's picked up that trick from Zak.
Step 4: Take your two helpings of pizza dough and wrap them in plastic wrap. Then stick 'em in the fridge. They will stay good for about 3 days in the fridge...you can just pull them out whenever you need them. When you're ready to make your pizza proceed to step 5.
Step 5: Preheat your broiler. Find a cast iron skillet that is about the size of the pizza you want to create. Turn your broiler on high and place the skillet directly under the broiler. You want that skillet to be super hot because that's what's cooking the crust on the bottom.
Step 6: While preparing your pizza continue to entertain the baby girl with a snack.
Step 7: Get your pizza ingredients together. You can add anything you want but for this pizza we used mozzarella, ricotta, sausage, fresh basil, bell peppers and onion. You can put pizza sauce on the pizza or you can use canned tomatoes. For this pizza I used a can of fire roasted tomatoes with garlic. And yes...the picture is sideways...
Step 8: Here comes one of the tricky parts. You have to be ready to take the completly prepared pizza and put it into an extremly hot skillet in a matter of moments. To do this I placed some very large spatulas underneath the dough before I added the toppings.
Step 9: Top your pizza...and please don't forget to add LOTS of cheese!
Step 10: Okay here's the hardest part (the reason why there is no pictures for this part). Quickly take the skillet out from under the broiler and just as quickly place your pizza in the pan. Don't worry if the crust gets messed up...it won't affect the taste. Put the pizza back under the broiler and shut the door. After about a minute turn the pizza 180 degrees. Every minute or two turn the pizza 180 degrees until the pizza crust is brown and the cheese is bubbly.
Don't forget to make a mini tomato and cheese pizza for the baby girl! Yummy!
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