friday night is pizza night

There's something about Friday nights and pizza that go so well together in my head. As much as I love Brooklyn style pizza, I can't afford to buy it every week, and so I've taken to making my own. Because yeast is often such a nerve-wracking ingredient for me, for a long time I'd just buy ready-made dough, roll it out, and put toppings on it. But lately I've had great success with a pizza dough recipe passed onto me by my mother-in-law. The original recipe came from Wendy, a friend of hers, who is apparently well-known for her pizza dough. Judging by my astounding success rate with it, despite the yeast, I can see why it's so popular.

Another reason why this recipe is so great? Once baked, you can easily freeze the dough. The recipe makes two pizza rounds, but we only need one for a meal, so I make one to serve and one to freeze. When another Friday night rolls around and I'm itching for pizza again, all I need to do is pull it out of the freezer, pile on toppings, and bake it.

Wendy's Pizza Dough

13 oz lukewarm water
2 1/4 tsp yeast
2 1/2 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp sugar
4 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp salt

Soften yeast in water, then add oil and sugar. Gradually add flour and salt. Mix well. (If you have a mixer, use it. I don't, but apparently my hands work just fine.) Turn onto a floured board and knead until smooth. Let rise until double, then punch down. Let sit for about 10 minutes. Divide dough and roll out on greased surface. Place on lightly greased pan or dry pizza stone and bake at 350 for about 10 minutes. Add sauce, cheese, and toppings, then bake at 425 until crust is golden brown, about 15 minutes)

If you want to freeze pizza rounds, cool after baking dough and wrap in foil. Store until ready to eat. No need to thaw. (Or make dough in morning and refrigerate until evening pizza prep.)

As far as toppings go, we generally stick to mozzarella and pepperoni, though sometimes, if we have them, we'll put on tomatoes, olives, and/or artichoke hearts. The best pepperoni we've found is the kind we get sliced to order at the deli counter. It tastes so much better and is actually cheaper (for us, anyway) than the pre-packaged kind. Depending on what I have on hand, for a sauce I will either use a pre-made jarred marinara, or I will make my own by mixing together an 8 oz can of tomato sauce, a 6 oz can of tomato paste, a few teaspoons of Italian seasoning, and a teaspoon each of garlic powder and salt.

I made my dough this morning, and right now it's waiting in the fridge for me to top it this evening. Is anyone else planning to have pizza for dinner tonight?