How to Make Homemade Pizza, Part 1: The Dough

Pizza dough can be as easy or as complicated as you want it to be. I've made pizza dough in 5 minutes and I've made pizza dough over a few hours. You can really use any bread recipe you like as your pizza dough. Just shorten or skip the rise unless you like a thicker, breadier crust, then by all means let that baby rise!

I think the easiest way to make pizza dough is just to use a hunk of Artisan Bread in 5 minutes A Day Master Recipe. I almost always have this dough in my fridge and in a pinch, I scoop out a hunk, roll it out and go. The crust is FABULOUS!

My current favorite dough is Camille's (nope, not me!) Best Ever Bread Dough. While this dough requires a few more ingredients and steps than most pizza doughs I've used, it is truly impossible to mess up. It also has a magnificent flavor. I love that there is no need to let the dough rise. At all. I make 4 pizzas out the recipe.

The basic pizza dough recipe below is the one that started it all for us. We still use this recipe on a regular basis and I love it.

The best thing about pizza dough is that you can freeze it! I always make a double batch (or in the Best Ever Bread Dough, I just freeze half that single batch) and freeze. I wrap the dough in plastic wrap and tuck it way back in the freezer so that it freezes quickly. I then put the frozen dough in a freezer bag. I'm not perfect at thawing it and I'm trying to pin down a precise thawing process. I like to give it enough time to thaw and warm up and rise just a bit so I know the yeast is good to go. How long that takes just depends on the time of year. But I usually let it sit out on the counter all day long.

Basic Pizza Dough
1 cup warm water
1 package dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)
1 teaspoon sugar
2 Tablespoons oil (I like olive oil)
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups all purpose flour (you can substitute some whole wheat)

In a bowl, mix yeast, sugar, and water. Add in olive oil, salt and 1 1/2 cups of flour. Mix to combine. Keeping adding flour by 1/4 cups until the dough is smooth and tacky, but not too sticky. Bread dough should almost always have a little annoying stick to it. Let dough rest for 5 minutes, covered, up to 2 hours.

Do you have a favorite pizza dough? I'd love to try it out!

How to Make Homemade Peanut Butter

I have this really great peanut butter in my cupboard -- Chocolate Cherry. YUM! There is a small hometown business near my sister in Michigan called "Naturally Nutty" and they make all kinds of super healthy, flavored peanut butters. Between my sister and my mom, I always have at least one jar in my cupboard. The problem with Chocolate Cherry is that it has big old dried cherries in it. The kids are not fans.

I also have about 8 jars of dry roasted peanuts in my pantry. The grocery store had them on sale for $1.50 and the each had a $1.00 off coupon on them. I could not figure out why they had any left! I stocked up.

The other day when it was impossible to NOT get cherries out of the Chocolate Cherry peanut butter, I tossed some of those dry roasted peanuts in the mini-processor and voila -- homemade peanut butter!

Just keep processing... it will get smooth all on its own.

I'm guess this would work for all types of nuts. I'm thinking of throwing in some flax seeds or something else good for them next time. Just because I can!

This peanut butter is unbelievably delicious. I'm keeping it in the cupboard, but the fridge might be better (because all the natural peanut butters tell you to keep it in the fridge, but I have no idea why. I never do.).

Make It Homemade: Donuts

I've been wanting to make my own donuts for months, but in general, I really dislike deep fat frying. It just grosses me out for some reason.  But when I saw this recipe for chocolate donuts, I had to try them. The sour cream and coffee as ingredients had me intrigued.  I substituted cocoa powder for the bittersweet chocolate (3 Tablespoons of powder and 1 Tablespoon of oil/butter for every 1 oz or 1 square of chocolate) and fried them in coconut oil. 

These donuts on their own are not overly sweet, which I appreciated. I can't handle a lot of sweetness! I used this glaze , which added just the right touch and made them  just sweet enough. I substituted honey for the corn syrup in the glaze recipe and it worked wonderfully!

I really liked these donuts, but I did something wrong because they were very dense, almost like a heavy cake. I may have overworked dough (I mis-read the instructions on adding the flour mixture). I definitely need to try again and use a lighter hand. Or I may have not fried them enough or fried them too long. I'm not really sure! But I still recommend the recipe for a fun treat.

And you can use the leftover glaze to dip strawberries in -- my husband's fine idea!

Make It Homemade: Corned Beef Hash

One of the only reasons I can ever think of to go out to eat for breakfast is so I can have corned beef hash. I LOVE that stuff! If you have an Original Pancake House around, they have THE BEST corned beef hash (and it comes with the best latkes!). I wanted to try making my own hash so when corned beef went on sale this past March, I stocked up.

This hash is chunky -- not fine like the restaurant. I think I need to chop it up more (thankfully, I have plenty leftover to fiddle with). But it is still yummy and so filling that we skipped right over lunch the day we had it for breakfast.

Homemade Corned Beef Hash
1 pack of corned beef
6 potatoes (or however many will fit in the bottom of your slow cooker)
1 onion, chopped

Wash potatoes and place in the bottom of a slow cooker. Place corned beef on top. Cook on low overnight or until done (mine cooked for about 7-8 hours). Take corned beef and potatoes out of slow cooker and dice into small pieces (whatever size you want). Saute onion in large frying pan until translucent (use oil or butter as needed). Add in corned beef and potatoes and allow to fry until browned.

Make It Homemade: The Perfect Pita

I have been messing around with homemade pitas since last summer. I love the idea of a simple homemade flat bread that is quick and easy and delicious. They were anything but! Oh, they were delicious, but they were not quick and easy. They also were not proper "pitas" because I could never get them to puff correctly (thus creating the desired pocket). I tried them on the grill. I tried them in the oven. Nothing worked. I went back to buying pitas in shame.

And then I decided to try no knead, artisan bread dough. I should have known. That bread dough is hands down the most versatile "pantry staple" in my kitchen. It makes absolutely perfect pitas.

I took a handful of dough and rolled it as flat and round as I could get it (using plenty of flour!). I popped the flattened dough right on to the rack in my toaster oven and baked at 450 degrees. A few minutes later -- POOF! I took the pita out, put it in a basket and kept it well covered with a towel to keep it soft. I varied the sizes and shapes to find the perfect size and ended up being able to cook 2-3 at a time. There was one pita leftover and it was still soft and delicious the next day.