Canadian Budget Binder

If you want to make pizza at home instead of take-out delivery pizza it’s easy, tasty and won’t break the budget. Pizza Delivery is still a big phenomenon around the world especially when it comes to parties, gatherings, weddings, or just treat night for the family. These shops make it even easier for the average consumer who has internet access as you can now order pizza online without having to make a phone call. The easier they make the process the less hassle you will believe it is.

Making homemade pizza does take a bit of time but if you plan ahead you can easily make the perfect pizza crust and a good Italian pizza sauce. After all the history of pizza  also known as a pie points in the general direction of the Italians towards Naples, Italy. Pizza is pronounced “pittsa” which is funny because we have heard Italians pronounce it that way.Unlike Canadians, Italians savour their pizza like a small snack and don’t particularly eat it as a meal. Great thing is you don’t have to be Italian to make an Italian Pizza recipe. I will always say the best pizza is a stone oven baked pizza although most Canadians don’t have a stone oven in our outside their home.

How do you make pizza then you ask? Well it’s fairly simple and pizza made at home is better than those frozen pizzas that you buy at the grocery shop.

First you must sing- When the moon hits your eye, it’s a CBB pie, that’s amore! (thanks to Mary a CBB fan for this little jingle)

Pizza Crust

There are very few ingredients for the perfect pizza crust

• flour
• egg
• yeast
• water
• salt
• sugar
• olive oil

A good pizza base recipe ( the crust) which is the bottom of the pizza, in my opinion needs yeast although some people prefer their pizza dough without yeast. No yeast will prevent the crust from rising like proper yeast dough but if you like a flat bread type pizza this might be the way to go. I would find it similar to my spinach tortillas which are yeast free and you could easily put any pizza toppings on it and stick it in the oven. You can use either bread flour (which will give you a crispier crust) or the all-purpose flour (which will give you a chewier crust) pizza. For this recipe I chose to go with an all-purpose flour as I prefer the chewier crust.

Pizza Toppings

When I created this pizza base I tinkered around with eggs, no eggs but found that adding an egg to the pizza dough made it easier for me to roll. No, I didn’t do any fancy pizza tossing with this recipe as I’m afraid I would only make a disaster. It was hard for me to come up with one pizza as I had pizza topping idea flowing through my head non-stop. I ended up with a simple pepperoni, mushroom, onion, cheese pizza with cornmeal sprinkled on the bottom for texture.  It took about an hour for the dough to rise and after that it was smooth sailing. You can also add herbs and garlic to your dough if you like to jazz up the taste even more. With the leftover dough I rolled it out and made calzones because I didn’t want to waste anything.

Homemade Pizza Sauce

The best pizza sauce we like is the sauce that we make for pasta. We like the tanginess with the use of tomato paste and all the staple fresh ingredients of a good Italian pasta sauce. Pasta sauce is so easy to make that you can’t even compare homemade sauce to anything you  buy in a can or a jar. For the sauce we simply let it cook down for about 8 hours so it condensed the flavours and thickened it up. We typically make the sauce the day before and store any leftovers in the freezer for an easy week-night me

Pizza Stone

We have a pizza stone which I put in the oven to get nice and hot then topped it with cornmeal. I then put the pizza dough that I rolled out on the pizza stone so I could add my toppings. I could have created a deep-dish Chicago style pizza but I wanted to keep it light as I find deep dish pies to be heavy especially if the crust is stuffed with more cheese. If you have the option to get a good mozzarella and provolone cheese I would suggest that. You want a cheese that will be ooey, gooey, cheesy good but with lots of flavour. This is no Luigi’s Pizza, and it’s not Delissio, it’s Mr.CBB’s So-Much-Better-Than-Take-out Pizza

How To Make Homemade Pizza

Tools:

• Pizza Stone
• Spatula
• Large bowl
• Tea Towel
• Measuring Cup
• Small Bowls
• Utensils
• Large Pot
• Can Opener
• Cutting Board

Makes: 2 Medium Pizzas

Time: 

• Make Dough- 20 minutes
• Rise the Dough- One hour
• Cook- 10-15 minutes at 350 degrees (depending on various ovens this may vary)

Pizza Sauce- Recipe for homemade pizza sauce (Use the sauce recipe at this link but you may want to make it a day in advance due to the time required. This recipe will make more than you will need so you can freeze it and use it for more pizzas or pasta.

Pizza Dough Recipe

Ingredients:

• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• extra virgin olive oil
• 1 large egg (room temperature) beaten
• 1 1/2 cups of 110 degrees F warm water (warm to touch)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt
• 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
• 1 packet/envelope of yeast or 2 1/4 teaspoons
• 1/4 cup cornmeal to sprinkle on pizza stone

Pizza Toppings

• 1 cup red onion sliced
• 1 cup of sliced mushrooms
• 1 1/2  cups sliced pepperoni
• 1 1/2 cups mozzarella cheese
• 2 cups pizza sauce

Preparing the Dough

• In your measuring cup empty the envelope of yeast, add in the sugar and warm water then mix.
• Allow the mix to sit for approximately 10-15 minutes until it bubbles (that way you know the yeast has activated)

• In a large bowl add the flour and salt then make a well in the middle.

• Add in the yeast mix and the beaten egg and start working the flour into the wet ingredients

• Once mixed, turn onto a floured surface and knead until the dough is smooth and elastic about 5-7 minutes Note: do not use too much bench flour just enough so the dough does not stick to your surface.

• Lightly coat a large bowl with extra virgin olive oil, then put your dough inside.
• I like to coat the top of my dough as well, then cover with a tea towel

• Let the dough stand for about an hour or until it has doubled in size
• Punch your dough down then put onto a very lightly dusted surface and roll with the rolling pin

• Roll the dough to your desired size (this takes some work)
• Put your Pizza stone in a hot 350 Degree oven for 5 minutes to heat up the stone

• Take it out and sprinkle with cornmeal
• Put your pizza dough on top, add the sauce and your ingredients

• Put the pizza in the oven for about 10-15 minutes depending on your oven..
• Make sure you keep an eye on your pizza so that it doesn’t burn

A Big Thanks to my mate Aunt B for naming my pizza!

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