While I’m thinking of it: The wrong way to make pizza

The Kid and I made pizza tonight and ruined it.

I’ve made my own pizza before — it’s super easy — and I usually line my cookie sheet with tinfoil to keep the mess to a minimum. But tonight I wanted to try waxed paper. Big mistake.

The pizza came out with its own paper wrapper that refused to peel off. It was a terrible situation, and an otherwise beautiful and lovingly prepared pizza was ruined.

I should have taken some pictures to show you. Looking at the beauty of the pre-baked pizza would have made you weep, especially when we were trying to get the paper off and ended up just eating all the pepperoni and cheese.

Next time I make pizza, I’ll take some pics to show you how it’s supposed to look.

*

Easy Pizza

Ingredients:

• 3 cups flour
• 1 pkg active dry yeast
• 1 Tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• Seasonings to taste
• 2 Tbsp vegetable or olive oil
• 1 cup warm water
• spaghetti or pizza sauce
• mozzarella cheese
• toppings

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 375-degrees F.
• Wrap a cookie sheet with tinfoil. Or use a pizza pan if you don’t like rectangular pizza.
• In a large bowl add 3 cups flour, 1 pkg active dry yeast, 1 tsp salt, 1 Tbsp white sugar, and seasonings (I usually add garlic powder and Italian seasoning. Makes the crust not so bland. If you don’t have any spices, you can have a plain crust and it tastes fine.)
• Add 2 Tbsp vegetable or olive oil and 1 cup warm water. Mix with your hand, kneading into the bowl. Keep stretching and folding the dough until there’s no loose flour or crumbly bits and the dough becomes smooth and easy to work.
• At this point you can either use the dough as is, or cover and let sit for half an hour. I usually just throw it on the pan because I’m hungry/impatient or both.
• Plop the dough in the middle of the tinfoiled baking sheet, and working from the middle toward the edges, use your fingers and palms to spread the dough. It will seem like there’s not nearly enough dough, but keep working it and it will stretch to cover a whole 15″ x 10″ pan. Try to keep the same thickness across the whole pizza and you can add a bit of a lip around the edge to give yourself some crust if you like it.
• Spread with spaghetti or pizza sauce and sprinkle with cheese. Arrange your toppings as you like. (I like Canadian bacon, diced tomatoes, black olives, and jalapenos, though pepperoni pizza is always a classic. You can even change up the sauce and experiment a little.)
• Bake for 20-25 minutes. Let stand at least 5 minutes before cutting. (Give your cheese a chance to firm up before slicing. Otherwise you’ll start cutting and all your toppings will slide off.)

Making a pizza at home can feed your family for less than $5 per pizza.

(Prego spaghetti sauce: $1.88-2.50 a jar and you only need a small amount; Canadian bacon or pepperoni: $2-3 for a package and you can make 2-3 pizzas if you don’t eat all the slices; shredded mozzarella cheese: $1.50-3 for a package; flour: $3 for a whole bag; white sugar: $2-3 for a whole bag; active dry yeast packets: $1.50-3 comes 3-to-a-pack; salt: $0.50-0.90 for a canister; Italian seasoning: $0.50-2 for a shaker bottle; and garlic powder: $0.50-2 for a shaker.)