Pizza! Pizza! Pizza!!

I think homemade pizza is one of the most scrumptious and easy things to make! You can whip it up so fast especially when you're strategic about the order you do things in! For example, whip up the dough in your food processor, while the dough rises for about 15 minutes, mix up your pizza sauce (you wouldn't put processed store bought pizza sauce on a perfectly otherwise homemade pizza would you???), preheat your oven and prep your toppings. Bake your prepared pizza til golden and cooked through and voila, you have a home made pizza that tops anything you could order from your local pizza joint! And as a bonus this homemade pizza is way healthier for you because you control the type of flour you put in, the amount of fat, and the toppings (which by the way, there are practically a million and one choices for toppings so you can never get bored of this stuff!!).

Here is a great healthy recipe for pizza crust that will leave you wanting to make this all the time!

Spelt Pizza Crust

Recipe adapted from The Girl Can't Cook by Cinda Chavich

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all purpose flour


• 1 cup spelt flour


• 2 tsp instant yeast


• 1 tsp salt


• 1 tbsp olive oil (you think Pizza Hut puts that little oil in their dough? think again - try about 2 cups of oil per pizza + toppings!!!)


• 1 cup warm water


• 1 tsp sugar


• cornmeal for dusting


• pizza stone is optional, but not required

Method:

1. Place the flour, yeast and salt in the food processor and whirl briefly. Combine the olive oil, warm water, and sugar. With the machine running, slowly add the liquid, until the dough comes together in a ball. You can add up to 1/4 cup more warm water if you need - the dough should be smooth but soft.


2. Set dough aside in a lightly oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap while you whip up the sauce and prep the toppings.


3. Preheat the oven to 500F.


4. Divide dough in two and roll out each piece of dough to fit on your baking sheet. Top liberally with pizza sauce and desired toppings. Bake in preheated oven for 10-12 minutes until the bottoms of the pizzas are golden and crisp and the cheese is melted.


5. Let pizza stand on cutting board for two minutes prior to cutting (if you can bear to wait that long!!!)

*note this amount of dough makes enough for two rectangular thin crust pizzas.

*Topping ideas: I did two pizzas - one had mexican salami, capacolla, mozzarella cheese, and roasted red pepper. The other had sauteed garlic mushrooms, roasted garlic pieces, goat cheese and roasted red pepper.

Happy Cooking my Friends!