Pizza

 Makes one 14 inch thick crust, two 12 inch thin crust, or four or five personal pizzas

Ingredients:

3 cups all-purpose flour

Mozzarella cheese

1 pkg. yeast (2 1/4 tsp)

Toppings (pepperoni)

1 Tbl sugar

1 tsp salt

1 cup lukewarm water (110-115*)

2 Tbl oil

1 Tbl cornmeal (for pan)

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 425*

2. Start with 2 cups of the flour and put it in a large mixing bowl. Add 1 tsp salt and 1 tablespoon sugar to this flour mixture and stir

3. In a liquid measuring cup, measure 1 cup of lukewarm water. Add the yeast packet to the warm water in the measuring cup and stir to dissolve. Add 2 tablespoons of oil to the water and yeast mixture.

4. Add the water mixture to the 2 cups of flour. Stir until the ingredients are blended. Add in additional flour, stirring until dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. **You may not use all the extra flour**

5. Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface until smooth and elastic, about 4-6 minutes. Place dough in a lightly oiled bowl ( use cooking spray), cover with plastic wrap and let sit for 10 minutes.

6. Lightly oil the pizza pan and sprinkle with cornmeal. Lightly oil the counter top and use a rolling pin to roll the dough a bit larger than the pizza pan. Transfer the dough to the pan, stretching to cover evenly. Crimp or fold the edges to form the crust.

7. Prebake: bake the crust for about 8 minutes

8. Add pizza sauce and toppings and bake again for 10-12 minutes until cheese is melted and pizza is a light golden brown

(I didn’t use cornmeal and it turned out fine. Don’t remember if I used flour or cooking spray or nothing at all)