Once you’ve had homemade pizza dough, it sure is hard to go back to frozen or take-out pizza! Here’s a simple recipe that I’ve been using lately. This is made using my bread machine, although it works great by hand as well. This makes two 12-inch sized pizza crusts.

Ingredients:

• 1-1/4 C water
• 2 T olive oil
• 1-2 T honey
• 4 C bread flour
• 1-1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp active dry yeast

Directions:

Place water, oil and honey into pan first. Cover with flour. Place salt in one corner. Make a small indentation in the middle of the pan (not to the liquid) and add yeast. Set to pizza dough setting, if you have it. Otherwise, set it to knead for 25 minutes and rise for 30 minutes. Once it has finished rising, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and punch it down. Shape it into a ball and let it rest for 5 minutes. Roll it out to the desired thickness (or I like to gently stretch it with my hands, using the weight of the dough itself to help pull). Top it with your favorite toppings and bake in the oven for about 20 minutes at 425 degrees.

You can refrigerate the dough after you remove it from the bread machine for 2-3 days. You can freeze it for several months. If you keep it as a ball, thaw it in the refrigerator overnight. Set refrigerated dough out on the counter about 2 hours before you’re going to use it. You can also roll out the dough and freeze it as a prepared pizza crust. In this case, I would top it while still frozen and put it straight into the oven.

*updated* To make by hand:

Cream the yeast with 4 Tbsp of water, then stir in the remaining water. Stir in the oil. Sift the flour and salt together into a large bowl and make a well in the center. Pour the yeast mixture into well and mix to a soft dough.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic (8-10 minutes). Place in a lightly oiled bowl and cover with oiled plastic wrap and leave to rise until doubled (1 to 1 1/2 hours). Punch down the dough onto a lightly floured surface. Shape it into a ball and let it rest for 5 minutes. Roll it out to the desired thickness (or I like to gently stretch it with my hands, using the weight of the dough itself to help pull). Top it with your favorite toppings and bake in the oven for about 20 minutes at 425 degrees.

I’ve had many people ask me recently how I make my pizza sauce.

Quick and Easy Pizza Sauce:

Mix one can of tomato sauce with one can of tomato paste. Add about two teaspoons of garlic powder (or fresh garlic) and 3 tablespoons of Italian seasonings (or your favorite herbs). Good for 2-3 pizzas.