what's cooking wednseday - pizza dough

Back before the kids arrived Mike and I used to have a fairly regular date night which would include dinner and a movie. I know, we are so original. We would take turns picking the movie and what to have for dinner. The dinner we'd have most often was make your own pizza night. Then Abby arrived and things like making my own pizza dough just kind of fell off the list. Now we eat pizza fairly regularly because it is one of the very few meals the entire family will eat. So I decided it was time to reclaim make your own pizza night.



And since I found out you can freeze pizza dough I spent Sunday making three double batches and now have make your own pizza night covered for a while.



Pizza Dough (double crust recipe)

10.5 oz warm water (80F) - that's 1 1/4 cups + 1 tbsp
4 tbsp vegetable oil
4 cups flour
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
2 tsp bread machine yeast (or 2 1/1 tsp active dry yeast)

Layer the ingredients in your bread maker pan according to the manufacturers directions. Press start on the dough setting.

When done place dough onto floured surface. Knead about 1 minute, then let rest for 15 minutes. Divide dough into two balls. Roll dough out to fit a 12 - 14 inch pizza pan. Place dough into greased pan which has been sprinkled with cornmeal. Press dough into pan, forming an edge. Let dough rise for 20 minutes.

Top with sauce, cheese and your favourite toppings and bake at 425F for 20 minutes.

Notes: This was a lot of fun. Abby loved being able to dress her own pizza (turkey pepperoni and bacon!). We usually check on the pizza somewhere between the 10 - 15 minute mark. We don't like too crunchy of a crust. Definitely a quick, easy and nice tasting pizza crust. I'm glad I decided to make a bunch even if it does take up valuable real estate in my micro tiny freezer. Tonight I threw some bruschetta and mozzarella on one to have with dinner. Oh also, we skip the cornmeal because Abby doesn't like it and just go with a quick spray of Pam or what you're more likely to find at my house, the bargain brand equivalent.

And yes Abby was thrilled with the final product!






What is What's Cooking Wednesday and how can I play?

What's cooking Wednesday was born out of a desire to get out of that what's for dinner rut. Playing is easy, on Wednesday post a recipe that has been tried and tested by you and then pop over here and add your name to the Mr. Linky. When entering your name also add the name of the recipe in brackets and make sure you link to your What's Cooking Wednesday post and not just your blog's front page. And don't forget to link back here, the home of What's Cooking Wednesday.

So for example I would write Shan (Speedy Chicken Stir Fry) in the name section. For the URL section I would post this: http://shanrev.blogspot.com/2007/10/whats-cooking-wednesday-speedy-chicken.html

I'll let you in on a little secret. Much to Kaffy's chagrin, my WCW recipes are almost never made on a Wednesday. So feel free to cook and photograph whenever you have time and join us posting on Wednesday.