About this Recipe

There are many ways to make a pizza, and this version is a simple Grandmother's Kitchen pizza using a pizza pan rather than a pizza stone and making the type of pizza teenagers and kids love. You can put any variety of topping your family asks for, but this recipe is primarily to give you a super easy version of a pizza crust that you will be glad is in your recipe box. In terms of pizza recipes, people are getting a little wild these days with their bacon cheeseburger pizzas and other wacky combinations, but we here in Grandmother's Kitchen love a classic tomato pizza recipe, a mushroom pizza recipe or any other veggie based pizza recipe ideas.

Grandmother's Kitchen Tips for Easy Pizza Crust:

1. You can make the crust ahead and let the kids build the pizza's on their special pizza nights.

2. We used the Easy Bread Recipe for the dough for the pizza recipe, which can be used for pizza crust recipes, Classic Homemade White Bread Recipe, or even this sweet and yummy Easy Cinnamon Bun Recipe.

3. We have used an almond and organic tofu based cheese alternative, but you can use other dairy cheeses also like feta or mozzarella.

4. A great little potluck idea even and way to get to bond with family or friends, is to tell people to bring some favorite toppings, and you, as the host, prepare this best pizza crust recipe and then everyone can mingle with a glass of wine in the kitchen while making homemade pizza.

5. The dough will keep in the sealed container for 2 weeks which allows you the flexibility to use some or all of the dough. If you plan to not use right away, date the container so you will not forget when you made the bread dough.

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Ingredients

(Print)

Makes FOUR 12 to 14inch pizza crusts

3 cups warm water

1 Tablespoon granulated sugar

1 1/2 Tablespoons Quick-Rise Instant yeast, at room temperature

6 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 Tablespoons salt

Coarse ground cornmeal - sprinkle 1-2 Tablespoons onto the bottoms of the pans

Directions for the Pizza Dough

1. You will need a container that has a lid that seals tight.

2. Add the sugar and quick-rise yeast to the 3 cups of water. The water must be between 120 and 130 degrees as per the label on the yeast jar.

3. Set the timer for 5 minutes. The yeast will activate.

4. Stir the salt into the flour then add the flour a little at a time to the water mixture, stirring to combine.

5. Be sure to use big enough bowl and stir the flour in with a wooden spoon.

6. When it is mostly incorporated, use your hands to gently work the dough together into a ball.

7. Transfer the dough to a bowl that has a lid and just cover lightly but do not seal the lid.

8. Let the dough sit one to two hours at room temperature until the dough has doubled.

9. Once the dough has doubled, punch it down with your hands.

10. Place the lid tightly on the container.

11. Refrigerate for 6 hours or overnight.

Directions to Make the Pizza:

1. You can use as much or as little of the dough as you like to make the pizza crusts. If you eat a lot of pizza or are having a pizza party and want to use it all, it will make about 4 pizza crusts.

2. If you don't want to use it all, just keep the remainder of the dough in the refrigerator in a sealed container.

3. Section the dough into four even pieces.

4. Form each piece into a ball.

5. Lightly flour your working surface and roll out the ball to the desired size.

6. Sprinkle a light coating of cornmeal into the bottom of the pizza pan.

7. Place your pizza crust into the pan and work with your fingertips to be sure it reaches the edges of the pan.

To Prepare a Pizza:

1. Spread a thin layer of tomato sauce. Add your topping.

2. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.

3. Place the prepared pizza into the preheated oven and bake for 12-15 minutes until the crust is a nice golden crispy brown color.

4. Cut and serve.

TO MAKE THE PIZZA SHOWN IN THE PHOTO:

The pizza shown in this photo has a mushroom, vegan feta, fresh tomato topping.

1. To make the sauce we use one cup Hunts tomato sauce and stirred in 2 tablespoons tomato paste and 1 tablespoon oregano flakes.

2. Clean and slice 12-20 mushrooms. Put a tablespoon of butter into a frying pan and saute the mushrooms until soft. (about 5 minutes)

3. Spread the tomato sauce onto the crust.

4. Evenly place the mushrooms on top.

5. Slice 3-4 fresh tomatoes and place evenly on the top.

6. Evenly sprinkle the feta cheese onto the top. We used about 2 cups of vegan-feta.

7. We then sprinkled on about a tablespoon of oregano flakes.

8. Place into the preheated oven and bake for 12-15 minutes. Cut and serve.

ENJOY!

Return to this Easy Pizza Crust Recipe recipe or check out more recipes at Grandmother's Kitchen

For the history lovers out there, the classic pizza that most pizzas are designed after nowadays are crafted after the ingenious food invention in 1889 by Italian chef, Raffaele Esposito, from Naples who used to prepare pizza for the Royalty in Italy. His most famous pizza is the Margherita which is now on just about every menu in the world that serves pizza.

Most people don't realize how easy it is to make a pizza dough from scratch. Making pizza dough from scratch is a super fun way to get creative in the kitchen, and once the pizza crust from scratch is ready you can have a pizza party and organize a few classic toppings and let people decorate their own pizza to their own personal liking.

Nutrition information is based on making 4 pizza crusts only from the recipe and each pizza offering 8 slices. There is no nutritional information on the one pizza made with the topping in this information box.