Homemade Pizza Crust Recipe

  I thought I would share my pizza crust recipe with you all. It is one I have used with success every time for over 30 years now.

  We prefer a deep dish type thick crust over a thin and crispy crust. You could make this thinner by making two large pizzas instead of one.

   I like to bake pizzas on my stones, or in my 15"  cast iron skillet. Of course you can use a couple smaller cast iron skillets too.
  We picked up this cast iron skillet at a farm sale near where we lived in Illinois. We were all packed up for the last trip down to our Missouri property ( we moved everything we owned by ourselves over a few years) when Hubs says "lets check out this farm sale before we go". He bought this wonderful skillet for $10.00-so I always smile when I bring it out to use.

  I have also baked a pizza right on the Weber grill in my cast iron. I always bake the crust first for several minutes before adding the toppings. After baked first I sometimes add a thin layer of mozzarella cheese on the crust first and then add sauce, toppings and lots of cheese on top.

             Kathy's Almost Famous Pizza

This will make a large deep dish type crust or two 12" thinner crust pizzas.

1 package active dry yeast
1 1/4 cup warm water-make sure not hot or will kill yeast
3 to 3 1/2 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon salt-I omit
1 can or jar of pizza sauce-I love Classico brand or Contadina 
brand
1 pound low fat mozzarella shredded cheese
Your choice of toppings  I like to use Italian sausage browned and drained, sliced olives, mushrooms, sweet pepper

Note: for the flour I would suggest starting out with 3 cups total working up to more as needed. Some flours you need different amounts. I love spelt flour for this recipe-everyone always raved about it. Or I use King Arthur all purpose flour. If you want to you can add a little whole wheat flour with the all purpose flour
   I have used this recipe with Bob's Red Mill all purpose 1 to 1 gluten free flour with so so results as it does not always rise well, I think a beaten egg or two would help out.

Instructions:
   
In mixing bowl. sprinkle yeast on warm water stir to dissolve. I like to let this sit til it bubbles a bit-a couple minutes. Start with two cups of flour and mix very well. I  also like to sprinkle in an Italian dried herb blend to the dough. Stir in more flour as needed to make a dough ready to knead-except no knead for gluten free flour. Knead for 10 minutes. add a little flour as needed.
    
Prepare your stone, or cast iron skillet with a little olive oil and then sprinkle corn meal generously on the bottom. Shape your dough in the pan and let rise for 30 minutes. Or you can let dough rise in a bowl and then spread on your pan-I have success either way.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees f

Prepare your toppings, if browning meat brown and drain, shred your cheese. If using fresh onions or sweet peppers I like to saute them a bit first.

If you let your dough rise as ball-spread out now onto your pan. Place your pizza crust into the oven for 7 minutes or til top no longer feels doughy.

Layer your pizza with toppings and bake 10 to 15 minutes.

Enjoy!!