Easy Peezy Pizza Pie

Sure, you can say pizza is of Italian origin, but really, it has become an American staple. I've tried pizza in Europe, while it is good, it is different. With this staple at the forefront, hardly a week goes by, where we don't have at least one pizza.  But, even buying frozen pizzas has become quite expensive, let alone from a pizza place. Yet, venturing into a day's worth of work making your own isn't exactly a thrill. Yes, you can buy those crust mixes, and even pre-made crusts, but they just aren't that good. However, after a series of trials and errors, I have discovered a simple method for creating a nearly pizzeria perfect pizza. 

Start by leaving a frozen bread dough (you can make your own and follow this recipe, but I'm striving for easy) out to thaw, letting it rise to double its size. It will take around 8 hours. Some packages give instructions for a quick thaw method, which can go as fast as 2 hours. I have done this and have not noticed a difference in the quality of the pizza. After your dough is ready, place an oven rack to the highest setting and turn your oven to high broil. (Warning: you will not cook your pizza on broil. The goal of this is simply to heat the top portion of your oven, essentially turning it into a pizza over.) 



As your oven is preheating, coat the bottom of a cast iron pan, or pans, with olive oil then sprinkle with garlic salt (I bet onion salt would be good to, but since I'm onion intolerant, I can't hack it). I've found that one frozen bread loaf works perfectly for my 10", 8", and 6.5" cast iron pans. Next, cut the dough to size. (For my pans, I cut it in half for the largest pan, then a third of the remaining for the 6.5" one. You may have to configure your own. If you only have a 10" pan, you could use half the dough, then repeat the process with the other half.) Next, gently knead the dough into the pan. When I do this with my youth group, the kids have the tendency to be rough as they try to spread out the dough creating holes, or matted dough. They key is being gentle. If you're feeling adventurous you can throw it in the air with some good rotation. Or, you could simply dangle it from you hands rotating it, and let gravity stretch out your dough. Once the dough is in place, add your sauce. I like to try a variety of sauces. You can use store bought or make your own. If you don't have any tomato sauce, but are in the mood for pizza, ranch dressing or garlic butter make a quick, easy alternative. With the pizzas pictured, I used a homemade roasted garlic white sauce (recipe coming soon) and Chinese hot-pot spices blended with tomatoes for our foreign exchange student. 

After the sauce is on, add your toppings. You know what toppings you like, so I don't need to tell you this. Just play around, be adventurous (or not). Throw on what you have available. Then top with cheese (or not, our exchange student turn out to be dairy intolerant, so I made one without cheese).  With toppings loaded, turn your oven from BROIL to 350 degrees and bake on the top rack for 15-20 minutes until the cheese is melted with smidge of crisped bubbling at the top. The crust at the bottom should have hues of gold. 

If you try this recipe, let me know how it turned out. What toppings do you like? Do you have your own sauce recipes? Or, did you have trouble? If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them in the comment section.