Pizza Night

Tonight was Pizza Night! It seems to be working its way to a full-fledged Friday night tradition, but we'll have to see. The best part? The breadmaker, Superman, and the kids cook dinner! We use the breadmaker to make our dough, combining a little of this and a little of that from various recipes to come up with a dough we like. Then Superman and the kids work it into pizza shapes and add the toppings. What kind of toppings? Well, so far, they're purists: Cheese and Cheese with Pepperoni and Sausage. I think we need to add a vegetable version with a light garlic sauce to the menu, but I haven't found the perfect recipe yet. This pizza is pretty good as it is, so I really can't complain.

Here is the dough recipe I've come up with via trial and error: (Add ingredients in the order your bread machine calls for. Mine calls for liquids first, so that is the order in which I listed the ingredients.)

Breadmaker Pizza Dough

1 1/3 cups warm water
2 Tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 Tablespoon Granulated White Sugar
2 Tablespoons (or more to taste) Italian Seasoning
2 Teaspoons (or less to taste) Garlic Powder
1 Teaspoon salt
3 cups White Flour
2 Teaspoons Active Dry Yeast

Set your bread maker to the dough setting and come back when it is done. Dough will be very sticky and wet. Pull and shape into pizza crusts - we use two Pampered Chef Stones - one round one and one rectangle and always have a little bit of dough left. Spread marinara sauce as you like on each crust (we only like a little, but it is an definitely individual preference). Sprinkle grated cheese all over (we use cheddar and mozzarella with some parmesan because we always have it on hand!), and top with whatever toppings you like on your pizza. At our house, this becomes competition to see who makes the best pizza...I think they're all good, but maybe I'm biased!

Bake at 400 degrees for about 12-15 minutes and, viola, you have Pizza!