Pizza

I had planned on making pizza for Ellie's birthday earlier this month. With everything else I had going on that day, I didn't get around to making it homemade, so we had Papa Murphy's pizza instead. (Hey... at least it was home cooked ;-) ) Hubby was REALLY craving homemade pizza since I had mentioned making it for the birthday. I might have gotten myself in over my head now... after hubby had taken a few bites, he said he was NEVER gonna buy a Little Caesar's pizza again. I think that is maybe taking it a tad to far... after all, mine takes a few hours, not very feasible for a spur of the moment lunch! I do see this in a regular rotation!

I adapted the dough recipe from Culinary in the Country. I love the different topping ideas they come up with. I doubled this recipe and made a Canadian bacon/ pineapple pizza and a "supreme" with sausage, olives, mushrooms, Canadian bacon, pepperoni and pineapple. The crust is not too heavy with the half and half use of flour. Of course I had to add some flax seed to up the nutrition. If you haven't gotten around to using flax yet... it IS optional. I add it to all my dough recipes to boost the Omega 3's my family gets. The sauce is QUICK and EASY! I swiped this from Coleen's Recipes I will never buy pizza sauce again!

We found that if you cook the pizza for 15 minutes adding the cheese after the pizza has baked for 10 minutes, the crust doesn't get soggy and the cheese doesn't get burned! These pictures didn't come out too well (I can't wait until we have daylight at suppertime again!), but someone has been muttering about me making pizza tomorrow, so I will get some new ones with better light!

Pizza Sauce


1/2 small onion, finely chopped
1/2 stalk celery, finely chopped
2 clove garlic minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 (6 oz) can of tomato paste
1 (6 oz) can of water
1 tsp basil
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp fennel seed(do not leave out)
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/8 tsp dry crushed red pepper flakes

Saute the onion and celery in the olive oil until soft. Add garlic and cook for 30 seconds until fragrant. Add remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Sauce will become very thick. Makes enough sauce to top one pizza.



Whole Wheat Pizza Dough


2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
1/2 tsp sugar
3/4 cup warm water
1 T olive oil
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
2 T flax seed, ground

Combine flours, salt and ground flax seeds. In mixer bowl, combine yeast, sugar and water. Let sit for 5 minutes or until frothy. Add oil and dry ingredients. Knead for 5 minutes. Turn out into a greased bowl and flip dough to oil top of dough. Let rise until doubled. Roll dough out and spread with sauce and desired toppings (excluding cheese). Bake at 450* for 10 minutes. Add cheese and bake an additional 5 minutes. This recipe makes enough for a 1 lb dough (1 pizza)