Friday Night Pizza

For as long as I can remember, we've had pizza and movie night most every single Friday night. It's a fun tradition and one that we all look forward to. Sometimes we order pick up, but whenever we make homemade pizza this is the recipe I always use. I know it's nothing new and revolutionary to the food blogging world, but this here blog is a compilation of our family recipes and it just wouldn't be complete without this.

Dough:
5 1/2 c. flour
1/8 c. sugar
1 TBLSP salt
1 TBLSP yeast
1/8 c. olive oil
2 c. hot water

Pizza Sauce:
1 28 ounce can of crushed tomatoes
2- 16 ounce cans tomato sauce
1 heaping tsp garlic powder
1 tsp oregano
1 Tbs basil
1 Tbs sugar
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 c parmesan cheese

Optional Toppings: pepperoni, peppers, mushrooms, onion, ham, pineapple, olives, tomatoes

Preheat oven to 450. For the dough, add yeast and a pinch of sugar to water and set aside to proof. Mix flour, salt, sugar together. Pour oil into yeast mixture then add it to the flour. Knead together then cover and let rest 10 minutes. Divide into balls of dough (makes 3 large or 6 small pizzas, half the recipe and roll dough thinner for thin crust pizza). Roll out into pizzas. To make the sauce, mix sauce ingredients together in a saucepan and simmer for 15 minutes. Top pizza dough with sauce and desired toppings (as you can tell, we are very adventurous with our toppings :). Bake for 12-15 minutes or until bubbly and starting to brown.

*Source: Melissa Herrera