Becky's Perfect Pizza Recipe

This recipe will make a variety of different shaped crusts: 6 thin, irregularly shaped crusts, 15 appetizer size pizzas, 3 nice dinner size pizzas, OR just one large crust!

½ tsp. salt

2 tsp. honey

2 tsp. olive oil

1 ½ tsp. crushed rosemary

2 ½ c. flour

1 c. warm water (NOT TOO HOT, but really warm)

1 ½ packages dry yeast or 2 cakes yeast

Put the salt, honey, rosemary and olive oil in a large bowl. With your wire whisk, blend in the warm water until honey is dissolved. Sprinkle the yeast on top. Let sit for about 20 minutes so the yeast can “proof” or get a bit bubbly.

Add the flour and mix until all is blended. Turn out onto a floured surface and gently knead for one minute. Return to bowl. Drizzle a little olive oil on dough, turn and drizzle a bit more so dough has a slight coating. Cover with a clean kitchen towel and let rise in a warm place. In the summer heat, this is not a problem and will create a super nice soft dough. In the winter, the dough will not rise as much, unless you are my mother and keep your house at 85 degrees year round. Sometimes in the winter I preheat my oven, turn it off and let the dough sit on the open door. Let the dough rise one hour.

Time to make the crusts! Heat your oven to 350 degrees. Remove dough from the bowl and cut in half, then cut each section into 3 pieces. Of course this depends on how many pizzas you are making. Roll each section out on a floured surface and place on large cookie sheets that you have sprayed with cooking spray. I usually get three sort of long and narrow crusts from each piece. Repeat until all crusts have been rolled. Using both oven racks, bake pizzas for about 7 minutes, then switch cookie sheets and bake about 4 minutes more. Only the bottoms and a bit of the edges will be golden. If you over-bake, it is OK – but remember, you will be baking again when you put the toppings on.

Store crusts in the freezer in a jumbo plastic bag. When ready to use, prepare your toppings and go for it! There is only one pizza sauce that is store-bought that I like and it is Contadina Four Cheese. It tastes as good as when I make it myself. Top with pepperoni, sautéed mushrooms, black olives, red pepper pieces and I use both crumbled feta and mozzarella slices. Anything you like will do. When topped, bake at 375 degrees for about 10 minutes until cheese is melted. YUM!